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Earl B. Dickerson: A Voice for Freedom and Equality (Chicago Lives)

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Earl Dickerson is a name unknown to most civil rights activists today,but without his contributions that started nearly eighty years ago the United States would still be "a third world country" in regards to race relations.As Chicago aldermen(the First black Democrat),activist member of FDRs FEPC,member and President(1951-'54) of the progressive National Lawyers Guild(labeled "subversive" by the U.S. Attorney General and the U.S. House Un-Americans)Why is it ALL organizations that want to extend freedom,in the U.S., are labeled "RED"?Mr Dickerson(deceased 1985) was a pioneer and visionary that ALL Americans should get to know and admire.
In this excellent biography you will learn that NOT ALL opponents of expanding Civil Rights to Black Americans were Southern Demcrats(Dixiecrats), and reactionary Republicans,but also so-called "liberals",who did not hesitate to use red-baiting against the wealthy businessman(insurance and the law).In the name of anti-communism many sins have been committed by the U.S. government at home and abroad.A worthy addition to any serious student of recent U.S. history,especially anyone wanting to know more regarding the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties battles of the twentieth-century.You will also learn a lot about the ins and outs of Chicago politics,by reading this book.Gideons Army(3vol.Marzani and Munsell)by the late NU professor of Journalism Curtis MacDougal is a invaluable contribution in getting a look at Illinois,and in general,U.S.leftwing politics in the late 1940s.This book came out in the middle 1960s,it MAY still be available.The role of the U.S. Communist Party,in the Henry Wallace campaign for President in 1948,of which Mr. Dickerson was a supporter, is fully discussed by Prof.MacDougall, who also was a Wallace backer.In the '48 elections Illinois Demcrats made sure that FDRs former Vice President WAS NOT On the ballot.

Prominent journalist Robert J. Blakely and freelance writer Marcus Shepard present Earl B. Dickerson: A Voice for Freedom and Equality, the first ever biography of Earl B. Dickerson (1891-1986), an independent-minded African-American who spent his life struggling against racial injustice. The racial oppression in his native Mississippi forced him to flee to Chicago at age fifteen; yet Chicago was no utopia. Dickerson worked his way through preparatory schools and college, a segregated officers' training school, and law school at the University of Chicago. His distinguished career included membership in FDR's first Fair Employment Practices Committee; leadership in the movement that broke the color barrier to membership in the Illinois State Bar Association; and his driving role behind the Hansberry v. Lee U.S. Supreme Court case that brought about the beginning of the end of restrictive real estate covenants, used as a legal tool of segregation in the North. A thoroughly researched, engagingly told life story that brings to life the man behind the pitched legal battles for social progress.

If you want to deepen your understanding of the forces that transformed Chicago during the twentieth century, begin with this excellent biography. Longevity is one reason: Dickerson's life spanned 1891 to 1986. He first arrived in Chicago from Mississippi in 1907 -- nine years before historians date the beginning of the Great Migration. His list of affiliations is another: board member of the national NAACP, President of the Chicago Urban League almost continuously from 1939-1955, and member of President Franklin Roosevelt's first Fair Employment Practices Commission, among many other posts. All of these are notable, but what makes Dickerson's life so illuminating is that he was a moving force in so many different sectors. Yes, lawyers are often aldermen, and lawyers sometimes are businessmen, but how many insurance company executives have been civil rights activists? Dickerson was all of these, and he also handled a landmark case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Hansberry v. Lee. This 1940 decision ended racially restrictive covenants on Chicago's South Side.

Earl B Dickerson is to the Nupes as Thurgood Marshall is to the Alphas. This a well written book that displays how another Black man (besides Dusable) had a great influence on how chicago was developed. Lawyer, Activist, millionaire, and one of the founders of my beloved "Greater" Beta chapter makes Earl B one of the most powerful black men in history. Men like this need more exposure to the masses so that more young black men will have an idol/ role model to pattern themselves after.This is a book that is not only good for black history but is also a very good history of chicago. Highly recommended!!!!!!!!!!!!!