A Different Day: African American Struggles for Justice in Rural Louisiana, 1900-1970 (review)

The rise of civil right demands in the the first half of the twentieth century and the consolidation during the 1950s and 1960s of a political civil rights movement represent one of the major historical transformation affecting American society. In this reviewer’s opinion, this often lively and quite detailed book provides a fascinating account of the civil right movement in local rural in Louisiana and those who made it. In the process, de Jong’s broad and sensitive book reinstates the study of civil rights as a highly worthwhile endeavor.

The thesis is straighforward and succinctly summarized by the author as she demonstrates through a close look at CORE’s activities in nine Louisiana rural parishes, how the civil right movement and strategy differed largely in rural communities as compared to urban settings. Despite its limited parameters and highly focused reseach design, it stands out as providing a persuasive account of the strengths and weakenessses of the civil rights movement. The book displays an impressive range of research and an admirable willingness to move beyond narrow civil rights history to provide the reader with a more comprehensive view.

De Jong starts her study with an examination of the oppressive charater of Jim Crow and the degrading consequence it had on African American activism. Besides providing a good description of African American life under Jim Crow, she emphasizes the importance of the informal strategy of resistance developped by African Americans in response to white supremacist violence. As a result, the particularly strong qualities of the de Jong history are its broad, systematic and evenhanded coverage of such standard subjects as the segregation laws, disfranchisment and limited economic opportunies offered to African Americans. By her analysis of the involvement of white elites and officials in violence and lynchings and their determination to limit education for African Americans, she clearly describes the mechanism by which a labor system close to slavery persisted in Louisina until 1940.

De Jong persuasively shows how rural African American people developed by the turn of the century a variety of strategies in order to circumvent plantation owners’ efforts to deny them knowledge and power. African Americans in rural Louisiana found in blues, churches and juke joints a respite from the harsh realities of plantation life. De Jong vigorously argues that, despite the importance of their role in community and political life, churches and fraternal societies were not strong enough to overcome white racism since general poverty and powerlessness generally prevailed during the Jim Crow period.

De Jong shares the conventional view that in rural Louisiana, as well as the urban south, World War I provided African Americans with an opportunity to challenge the repressive social system. As the Great Migration of 1916–19 affected African American communities in the south, a small number chose to organize themselves and openly challenge white society. On the other hand, de Jong also argues convincingly that the New Deal represents another important social upheaval: a period when African Americans joined radical workers and farmers’ movements to fight to end forced labor and peonage.

Although the intervention of the Federal authorities played a paramount role, de Jong convincingly argues that African Americans achieved most progress when they themselves took up the fight. During World War II, civil right leaders in rural Louisiana were quick to point out the contradiction between the fight for democarcy overseas and the segregation, disfranchisement and violence they suffered at home. In this way, they were able to rapidly obtain the prohibtion of discrimination in the Selective Service Act. As national politics came to to favor African Americans’ strength for emancipation, the latter were better placed than ever before to intiate organized, sustained attacks on white supremacy.

The most original and important sections of de Jong book deal with the period after 1940. Supported and encouraged by the Federal government, inspired by civil rights leaders and stimulated by...