Midwest Unrest - (Justice, Power, and Politics) by Ashley Howard

About the Book

"In the nation's so-called heartland, racism is sometimes subtler than in other parts of the country but just as insidious. When Black communities across America went up in flames in the 1960s, Midwest cities, where racial inequity was endemic, were among those most likely to burn. Midwest Unrest explores those rebellions, paying particular attention to the ways that region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression. Focusing on the uprisings in three midsize Midwestern cities--Cincinnati, Ohio; Omaha, Nebraska; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin--Ashley Howard argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes. Utilizing arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming the consciousness of African Americans and in altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives. Revealing a new dimension of the Black Freedom Movement, Howard moves the understanding of these disturbances from aberrant acts of violence to historically contingent acts of resistance, highlighting the coeval nature between organized protests and violent outbursts"--

Book Synopsis

In the nation's so-called heartland, racism is sometimes subtler than in other parts of the country but just as insidious. When Black communities across the United States went up in flames in the 1960s, Midwest cities, where racial inequity was endemic, were among those most likely to burn. Midwest Unrest explores those rebellions, paying particular attention to the ways that region, race, class, and gender all played critical and often overlapping roles in shaping Black people's resistance to racialized oppression.

Focusing on the uprisings in three midsize midwestern cities--Cincinnati, Ohio;
Omaha, Nebraska; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin--Ashley Howard argues that urban rebellions were a working-class response to the failure of traditional civil rights activism and growing fissures between the Black working and middle classes. Utilizing arrest records, Kerner Commission documents, and author-conducted oral history interviews, Howard registers the significant impact the rebellions had in transforming the consciousness of African Americans and in altering the relationship between Black urban communities and the state. Specifically, multiple parties, including municipal governments, city residents, and most importantly rebels, wielded urban revolt as a political tool to achieve their own objectives. Revealing a new dimension of the Black Freedom Movement, Howard moves the understanding of these disturbances from aberrant acts of violence to historically contingent acts of resistance, highlighting the coeval nature of organized protests and violent outbursts.

Review Quotes

"An adroit analysis of the intersections of race with class, gender, and regional discourse that offers new insights into postwar civil rights activism in the Midwest."--Brent M. S. Campney, author of Hostile Heartland: Racism, Repression, and Resistance in the Midwest

"Ashley Howard confronts head-on the myth that the Midwest is 'too nice for racism.' Her unpacking of the causes of urban uprisings and their impact on current-day race relations will resonate from the Midwest to the Rust Belt and beyond."--Nikki Brown, author of Private Politics and Public Voices: Black Women's Activism from World War I to the New Deal

About the Author

Ashley Howard is assistant professor of history and African American studies at the University of Iowa.