The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North - by Brian Purnell & Jeanne Theoharis (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North explores the topics of racism and segregation"--

Book Synopsis

Did American racism originate in the liberal North? An inquiry into the system of institutionalized racism created by Northern Jim Crow

Jim Crow was not a regional sickness, it was a national cancer. Even at the high point of twentieth century liberalism in the North, Jim Crow racism hid in plain sight. Perpetuated by colorblind arguments about "cultures of poverty," policies focused more on black criminality than black equality. Procedures that diverted resources in education, housing, and jobs away from poor black people turned ghettos and prisons into social pandemics. Americans in the North made this history. They tried to unmake it, too.

Liberalism, rather than lighting the way to vanquish the darkness of the Jim Crow North gave racism new and complex places to hide. The twelve original essays in this anthology unveil Jim Crow's many strange careers in the North. They accomplish two goals: first, they show how the Jim Crow North worked as a system to maintain social, economic, and political inequality in the nation's most liberal places; and second, they chronicle how activists worked to undo the legal, economic, and social inequities born of Northern Jim Crow policies, practices, and ideas.

The book ultimately dispels the myth that the South was the birthplace of American racism, and presents a compelling argument that American racism actually originated in the North.

Review Quotes

"The editors' previous collections anchored a major shift in the historiography of the black freedom movement. Likewise, thiswill serve as an indispensable resource."-- "Julia Rabig, Assistant Professor of History, Dartmouth College"

"This important collection advances a new framework for understanding how Jim Crow operated in the North"-- "Matthew Delmont, Arizona State University"

"This impressive, well-edited collection will be essential reading for anyone grappling with the pervasive stain of slavery in the United States."-- "Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor, Harvard University"

"This sharp, clear-eyed, passionately argued collection explodes, indeed demolishes, any lingering misconceptions that structural racism and discrimination began or was even most fully realized in the South. The editors and contributors to this collection argue -- importantly and provocatively -- that "the North led the nation in systematized racial injustice." A must read for all students, teachers and scholars of American race relations."-- "Annelise Orleck, author of We Are All Fast Food Workers Now"

About the Author

Brian Purnell (Editor)
Brian Purnell is Geoffrey Canada Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History at Bowdoin College. He is the editor of The Strange Careers of the Jim Crown North (NYU Press 2019) and author of Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings (University Press of Kentucky, 2013).

Jeanne Theoharis (Editor)
Jeanne Theoharis is distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of CUNY. She is the author of numerous books and articles on the black freedom struggle, including the award-winning The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Beacon Press, 2013) and most recently A More Beautiful and Terrible History (Beacon Press, 2018).