This essay suggests that in 1962-1963, before Birmingham and the March on Washington, a coalition of Black and White civil rights activists, labor, and religious leaders were in the vanguard of the struggle both on th...This essay suggests that in 1962-1963, before Birmingham and the March on Washington, a coalition of Black and White civil rights activists, labor, and religious leaders were in the vanguard of the struggle both on the Pacific Slope and in the nation. Berkeley＇s battle for fair housing represented an important phase of the civil rights struggle on the west coast and in cities where racial segregation was not based on law, but part of a conspiracy, silent but quite effective, among realtors, mortgage lenders, and renters, against Blacks and other minorities. Encouraged by state antidiscrimination legislation, Berkeley activists embarked upon a fair housing campaign based on surveys of the problem, efforts to enact legislation, and direct action. The irrationality of racists who defended their right to discriminate was one of the most singular aspects of the fair housing struggle. Though they lost at the local level, the coalition of new political forces succeeded a few months later at the state level and represented an effective force in liberal politics in the city for years to come. Because of the stiff opposition and the limits of reformers＇ liberal fair housing regulations, however, working class and poor African Americans still faced severe housing problems.展开更多
The year of 1968 was a pivotal year that impacts the United States and the world to this very day, forty years later. It was a year in the United States that witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., in...The year of 1968 was a pivotal year that impacts the United States and the world to this very day, forty years later. It was a year in the United States that witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., in April and of Robert Kennedy in June, ongoing student protests against the war in Vietnam, the Tet offensive and the My Lai Massacre, the upheaval of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, as well as the civil rights movement and the initial manifestations of the women＇s movement and the environmental movement. Moreover, beyond the borders of the United States, student demonstrations against government oppression occurred in Warsaw in March, in Paris in May, and in Mexico City in September tied to the Olympic Games that year in Mexico. The researchers also witnessed the joy of the Prague Spring from January until the subsequent Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia at the end of August. Richard M. Nixon was elected president of the United States in November, the counterrevolution of conservatism, if you will, that may have run its 40-year course with the administration of George W. Bush and the election on November 4 2008 of Democratic Illinois Senator Barack Obama.展开更多
文摘This essay suggests that in 1962-1963, before Birmingham and the March on Washington, a coalition of Black and White civil rights activists, labor, and religious leaders were in the vanguard of the struggle both on the Pacific Slope and in the nation. Berkeley＇s battle for fair housing represented an important phase of the civil rights struggle on the west coast and in cities where racial segregation was not based on law, but part of a conspiracy, silent but quite effective, among realtors, mortgage lenders, and renters, against Blacks and other minorities. Encouraged by state antidiscrimination legislation, Berkeley activists embarked upon a fair housing campaign based on surveys of the problem, efforts to enact legislation, and direct action. The irrationality of racists who defended their right to discriminate was one of the most singular aspects of the fair housing struggle. Though they lost at the local level, the coalition of new political forces succeeded a few months later at the state level and represented an effective force in liberal politics in the city for years to come. Because of the stiff opposition and the limits of reformers＇ liberal fair housing regulations, however, working class and poor African Americans still faced severe housing problems.
文摘The year of 1968 was a pivotal year that impacts the United States and the world to this very day, forty years later. It was a year in the United States that witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., in April and of Robert Kennedy in June, ongoing student protests against the war in Vietnam, the Tet offensive and the My Lai Massacre, the upheaval of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, as well as the civil rights movement and the initial manifestations of the women＇s movement and the environmental movement. Moreover, beyond the borders of the United States, student demonstrations against government oppression occurred in Warsaw in March, in Paris in May, and in Mexico City in September tied to the Olympic Games that year in Mexico. The researchers also witnessed the joy of the Prague Spring from January until the subsequent Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia at the end of August. Richard M. Nixon was elected president of the United States in November, the counterrevolution of conservatism, if you will, that may have run its 40-year course with the administration of George W. Bush and the election on November 4 2008 of Democratic Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
