Book description
Situated on the banks of the Ohio River, Louisville, Kentucky,
represents a cultural and geographical intersection of North and
South. Throughout its history, Louisville has simultaneously displayed
northern and southern characteristics in its race relations. In their
struggles against racial injustice in the mid-twentieth century,
activists in Louisville crossed racial, economic, and political
dividing lines to form a wide array of alliances not seen in other
cities of its size. In Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South:
Louisville, Kentucky, 1945--1980, noted historian Tracy E. K'Meyer
provides the first comprehensive look at the distinctive elements of
Louisville's civil rights movement. K'Meyer frames her groundbreaking
analysis by defining a border as a space where historical patterns and
social concerns overlap. From this vantage point, she argues that
broad coalitions of Louisvillians waged long-term, interconnected
battles during the city's civil rights movement. K'Meyer shows that
Louisville's border city dynamics influenced both its racial tensions
and its citizens' approaches to change. Unlike African Americans in
southern cities, Louisville's black citizens did not face entrenched
restrictions against voting and other forms of civic engagement.
Louisville schools were integrated relatively peacefully in 1956, long
before their counterparts in the Deep South. However, the city bore
the marks of Jim Crow segregation in public accommodations until the
1960s. Louisville joined other southern cities that were feeling the
heat of racial tensions, primarily during open housing and busing
conflicts (more commonly seen in the North) in the late 1960s and
1970s. In response to Louisville's unique blend of racial problems,
activists employed northern models of voter mobilization and lobbying,
as well as methods of civil disobedience usually seen in the South.
They crossed traditional barriers between the movements for racial and
economic justice to unite in common action. Borrowing tactics from
their neighbors to the north and south, Louisville citizens merged
their concerns and consolidated their efforts to increase justice and
fairness in their border city. By examining this unique convergence of
activist methods, Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South provides a
better understanding of the circumstances that unified the movement
across regional boundaries.
""The first person accounts convey the personal
viewpoint and also the human emotions that were often so
intense."--Kentucky Libraries" --
Tracy E. K'Meyer is associate professor of U. S. history at the
University of Louisville. She is the author of numerous articles on
the civil rights movement and race relations, as well as the book
Interracialism and Christian Community in the Postwar South: The Story
of Koinonia Farm.
