Freedom-s Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969 (Kindle Edition)

by JONAS. GILBERT (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘For many Barrack Obama represents the fulfilment of the ideal we call the American Dream and indeed the embodiment of the work of the NAACP … This first hand insider view gives a comprehensive account of the personalities and politics of the movement and the relationship between organisation and the leadership … Freedom’s Sword is an important book and deserves a place in our libraries both for its detail on the NAACP and for our understanding of the civil rights movement.’ – SATH History Teaching Review

Perhaps the most comprehensive and detailed account of the NAACP's eminent history, Freedom's Sword promises that the organization's legendary leadership and visionary activism is crisply remembered for generations to come
. -- Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Former president of the National Urban League
This long overdue account of the NAACP's first sixty years offers both an insider's view of the movement and a comprehensive history of it. Scholars of twentieth-century America will be in Jonas's debt for bringing it together in one worthy volume
. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
Gilbert Jonas's Freedom's Sword is invaluable as the most comprehensive account we have of the first six decades of the NAACP's historic struggle to overcome racism--'the one huge wrong of the American people.' It is equally valuable as a history lesson in the essential role that organizing will play if 'God's despised poor,' our sisters and brothers with beautiful darker skin, are to fully and equally share in a greater society. Our celebrity-crazed culture can learn from Freedom's Sword that not even the inspired genius and commitment of W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Mitchell, and Roy Wilkins could have brought us anti-lynching laws, Brown v. Board of Education, the Voting Rights Act and the many other milestones toward equal rights for every race without the organized people-power of African Americans united in the NAACP
. -- Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General
It is a work, well researched and documented, that needs to be read by any person seeking to understand the role that race-consciousness has played and continues to play in our society...The book is filled with examples of cases and cause undertaken by the NAACP that would prove itself worthy of the support from among African Americans themselves. The book is a solid work of scholarship and journalism. -- ForeWord Magazine
Freedom's Sword captures the courage, tenacity and moral zeal ofa set of 'new abolitionists' determined to deliver racial democracy in the United States...Gilbert Jonas has made an important contribution to the body of literature on the NAACP. His is a thoroughly informed perspective on a nearly 100-year fight against the arrayed forces of bigotry and the inhuman tradition of American racism. In pulling together the disparate strands of this story, Jonas has provided readers with a useful general history of the most influential advocacy organization of the 20th century and helped replace broad outlines with bold-printed details

. -- The Crisis
It may have taken 35 years to happen, but the release of Gilbert Jonas' chronicles of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) provides both a comprehensive history and insider's look into one of the most successful civil rights organizations of the 20th Century. From its 20-year court campaign that culminated with Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP has been at the forefront of the struggle against American racism. The NAACP started as a grass roots organization founded in 1909 by white liberals appalled by racial violence.
In Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969, the 50-year veteran of the organization tracks America's political and social landscape through each period. He highlights the efforts of ordinary citizens and Black leaders such as W. E. B. Dubois, James Weldon Johnson, and Thurgood Marshall to root out white-only political parties, segregated schools and city buses. -- Black Diaspora
Jonas has undertaken a worthy cause in writing an institutional history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He maintains that the N.A.A.C.P. has been stinted in historical literature that centers on King and groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He has a point. And Jonas has lived a good deal of this saga himself, as a veteran of 50 years as a volunteer and then staff member of the N.A.A.C.P. Perhaps he would have served his goal better in a memoir. Indeed, the best pages of the book, depicting the punctilious and principled Roy Wilkins, rely greatly on firsthand observation. Otherwise, while Freedom's Sword contains valuable facts and details for scholars, general readers may be frustrated by its poor organization and boosterism about the book's heroes.
. -- New York Times Book Review
Freedom's Sword is an important book that deserves a broad readership. It will have value to those with a particular interest in the NAACP and the civil rights movement. Beautifully illustrated and impressively researched, it will appeal to the general reader and the academic specialist. -- The Journal of American History

Review

‘For many Barrack Obama represents the fulfilment of the ideal we call the American Dream and indeed the embodiment of the work of the NAACP … This first hand insider view gives a comprehensive account of the personalities and politics of the movement and the relationship between organisation and the leadership … Freedom’s Sword is an important book and deserves a place in our libraries both for its detail on the NAACP and for our understanding of the civil rights movement.’ – SATH History Teaching Review

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 3588 KB
• Print Length: 544 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
• Publisher: T & F Books US (March 14, 2007)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000OI0UYY
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,183 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jonas and the NAACP, December 22, 2004

By	Murray W. Frank (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969 (Hardcover)

Because of his many years of connections with the NAACP, only Gil Jonas could have written such a thorough history of this important period in the life of the NAACP and the country. The detail is extravagant and very readable. This is a must for anyone interested in civil rights and race relations in the USA.
Murray Frank

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedom's Sword, April 27, 2005

By	William Hirschfeld (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969 (Hardcover)

Freedom's Sword is a hugely impressive and thorough undertaking. At the same time, Jonas' heart and soul clearly shine through. A must read for any student of American history, government, political science or the civil rights movement.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a worthy purchase and read, February 9, 2005

By	S.K. Wissinger (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969 (Hardcover)

gilbert jonas provides a fascinating first-person look at the events and personalities that shaped an important era in our nation's history. highly recommended.