A Brotherhood of Liberty - (America in the Nineteenth Century) by Dennis Patrick Halpin

Book Synopsis

Baltimore is key to understanding the trajectory of civil rights in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

In A Brotherhood of Liberty, Dennis Patrick Halpin shifts the focus of the black freedom struggle from the Deep South to argue that Baltimore is key to understanding the trajectory of civil rights in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the 1870s and early 1880s, a dynamic group of black political leaders migrated to Baltimore from rural Virginia and Maryland. These activists, mostly former slaves who subsequently trained in the ministry, pushed Baltimore to fulfill Reconstruction's promise of racial equality. In doing so, they were part of a larger effort among African Americans to create new forms of black politics by founding churches, starting businesses, establishing community centers, and creating newspapers. Black Baltimoreans successfully challenged Jim Crow regulations on public transit, in the courts, in the voting booth, and on the streets of residential neighborhoods. They formed some of the nation's earliest civil rights organizations, including the United Mutual Brotherhood of Liberty, to define their own freedom in the period after the Civil War.

Halpin shows how black Baltimoreans' successes prompted segregationists to reformulate their tactics. He examines how segregationists countered activists' victories by using Progressive Era concerns over urban order and corruption to criminalize and disenfranchise African Americans. Indeed, he argues the Progressive Era was crucial in establishing the racialized carceral state of the twentieth-century United States. Tracing the civil rights victories scored by black Baltimoreans that inspired activists throughout the nation and subsequent generations, A Brotherhood of Liberty highlights the strategies that can continue to be useful today, as well as the challenges that may be faced.

Review Quotes

"Halpin persuasively argues that the organization [Brotherhood of Liberty] laid the foundation to later Jim Crow era organizations in the city and the nation."--Hilary N. Green "Journal of Urban History"

"Halpin's recounting of the vigorous activism of black activists in Baltimore makes it clear that the so-called nadir was in no way a period of accommodation or withdrawal from the struggle for full equality."--Andrew Diemer "Journal of the Civil War Era"

"In A Brotherhood of Liberty, Dennis P. Halpin draws attention to a forgotten generation of Baltimore civil rights activists whose work served as the forerunner of well-known national movements. With his local focus and aim of highlighting the victories of African Americans, Halpin augments literature on the Progressive Era with intriguing case studies that illuminate the mechanics of the Black freedom struggle."--Paige Glotzer "Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era"

"In A Brotherhood of Liberty, Halpin describes how the African American community of Baltimore used activism to define citizenship and freedom after the Civil War. The book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of African American politics from the age of Emancipation through the hardening of Jim Crow to the law-and-order policies of the so-called Progressive Era."-- "Shawn Alexander, University of Kansas"

About the Author

Dennis Patrick Halpin is Associate Professor of History at Virginia Tech.