"... an important evaluation of the impact of the nomination battle on the NAACP." —The American Journal of Legal History
"... provocative and extremely important... Goings does an excellent job of showing how the defeat of Parker catapulted the NAACP into a new era." —The North Carolina Historical Review
"... Goings has broadened our understanding of an important topic, and his book deserves a reading."Â —American Historical Review
"The NAACP Comes of Age is a valuable study of an important episode in political history." —The Historian
The NAACP's fight against John J. Parker's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1930 energized African Americans politically and prepared the way for the 1936 black-voter switch and the entry of African Americans into the New Deal Coalition. The confirmation debate in the Senate on Parker's nomination revealed that the issue of race in national politics, which had been ignored after Reconstruction, could no longer be overlooked.
