Crashing the party

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Raymond Wolters

Raymond Wolters maintains that Ronald Reagan and William Bradford Reynolds made the "right turn" when they questioned and limited the use of racial considerations in drawing electoral boundaries. He also documents the Reagan administration's considerable success in reinforcing within the country, and reviving within the judiciary, the conviction that every person - black or white - should be considered an individual with unique talents and inalienable rights. This book begins with a biographical chapter on William Bradford Reynolds, the Assistant Attorney General who was the principal architect of Reagan's civil rights policies. It then analyzes three main civil rights issues: voting rights, affirmative action, and school desegregation. Wolters describes specific cases: at-large elections and minority vote dilutions; congressional districting in New Orleans; legislative districting in North Carolina; the debates over the Civil Rights Act of 1964; social science critiques of affirmative action; the question of quotas; and school desegregation and forced busing. Because Ronald Reagan and William Bradford Reynolds were men of the right, and because most journalists and historians are on the left, Wolters feels the "people of words" have dealt harshly with the Reagan administration. In writing this book, he hopes to correct the record on a subject that has been badly represented.

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Corey D. Fields

"What do you think of when you hear about an African American Republican? Are they heroes fighting against the expectation that all blacks must vote democratic? Are they Uncle Toms or sellouts, serving as traitors to their race? What is it really like to be a black person in the Republican Party? Black Elephants in the Room considers how race structures the political behavior of African American Republicans and discusses the dynamic relationship between race and political behavior in the purported 'post-racial' context of US politics. Drawing on vivid first-person accounts, the book sheds light on the different ways black identity structures African Americans' membership in the Republican Party. Moving past rhetoric and politics, we begin to see the everyday people working to reconcile their commitment to black identity with their belief in Republican principles. And at the end, we learn the importance of understanding both the meanings African Americans attach to racial identity and the political contexts in which those meanings are developed and expressed"--Provided by publisher.

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Richard Spilsbury

"This book shows how we know about the marchers and their experiences from primary and othr sources. It includes information on some historical detective work that has taken place, which has enabled historians to piece together they fascinating story of the civil rights marches"--Back cover.

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Bill Hosokawa

"This history of the Japanese American Citizens League was written not only for its thirty thousand members but also to answer JACL's critics, notably the Sansei--third-generation Japanese Americans--many of whom believe their fathers should have resisted the Evacuation during World War ll. Did JACL chart a wise course of cooperation with the federal government, or did it betray American principles and its own constituents by urging them to accept evacuation to U.S. Army-operated concentration camps? One of the most important purposes of the book is to take the Sansei back to those tragic, controversial years and show them exactly what their fathers confronted. Not only did they meet that crisis in what seemed the only way feasible at the time, but JACL has fought for full rights of citizenship for Japanese Americans ever since the war with remarkable success--an extraordinary record of accomplishment despite limited resources and membership. This book is for everyone concerned about ways in which Congress and the Supreme Court can fail to uphold the Constitution, and for those who will appreciate the story of one minority group's total--and nonviolent--victory over discrimination."--Dust jacket.