The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee by Patrick D. Jones (review)

Book Reviews 137 the images are numerous tables containing production statistics that chart the ups and downs of these companies over the years. One theme that emerges in Storied Independent Automakers is that for these automobile companies, a great deal depended on leadership although there certainly were times when leadership was sorely challenged by external circumstances, including the Great Depression, war, and changing consumer preferences. Effective managers, like George Romney, recognized and seized opportunities. Flawed business strategies, as for example those adopted by A. E. Barit or Roy Abernathy, helped run companies into the ground and to the point of bankruptcy. Perhaps the author could have included more cultural representations of these cars in his narrative. For example, Robert Johnson’s “The Terraplane Blues” was one of the most significant songs linking automobiles and sexuality in twentieth-century American life. And I would have liked a bit more information about these brands’ quality, and how quality issues, rather than design and market niche, acted to limit the growth of these organizations after World War II. But in conclusion, and despite my quibbles, this is an informative and useful book. I am confident that other readers will feel the same. John A. Heitmann University of Dayton Patrick D. Jones. The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009. Pp. 318. Bibliography. Index. Map. Notes. Photographs. Cloth, $45.00. This work contributes to recent scholarship that seeks to remove the civil rights movement from the confines of the South and place it in the urban North. Patrick Jones adds to this development by analyzing the struggle for civil rights in Milwaukee, one of the most segregated cities in the North, focusing on the years between 1958 and 1970. Jones argues that the movement in Milwaukee developed in response to local conditions, which differentiated it from the movement in other locations. He begins by placing the African American community within the broader history of the city, which was defined by the cultural and religious practices of white ethnic populations. Due to the growth in industry during World War II, the African American population in Milwaukee increased exponentially, resulting in employment discrimination and strict residential segregation that 138 Michigan Historical Review confined African Americans to the city’s “inner core.” Residential segregation led to overcrowding and further segregation in the schools. Moreover, subsequent white flight rendered the conditions in the inner core invisible to whites and the city’s power structure. In the early years of the movement, local activists experimented with new ways to both illuminate and combat racial discrimination in the city, often drawing inspiration from the movement in the South. Despite some successes, these early protests against such issues as police brutality and the membership of public officials in whites-only clubs, revealed the limitations of the traditional black leadership in Milwaukee. Although effective in other cities, these middle-class leaders relied on white patronage and therefore counseled a gradualist approach to civil rights and discouraged direct action, placing them at odds with a large segment of the black community, particularly young people. The use of direct action in the fight for school desegregation produced new leaders and organizations that filled the void left by the traditional leadership. The school-desegregation battle united the African American community as well as drawing in white activists, most notably Father James Groppi, whose story is the heart of Jones’s book. Groppi was a Catholic priest whose social-justice activism was rooted in his faith and facilitated by changes in the Catholic Church, particularly the mandates of Vatican II. Groppi served as the advisor for the local NAACP Youth Council and the Commandos, a militant group of young African American men who sought to protect demonstrators from racist violence. Jones argues that while the Commandos stressed unity and racial pride, they articulated a distinct philosophy of Black Power that reflected their local circumstances: they embraced interracial cooperation, were based in the church, and practiced “not-violence,” which they described as self-defense without the use of weapons. In The Selma of the North Jones effectively employs an impressive number of primary documents and oral histories to enrich...