Research Catalog

The making of Black lives matter : a brief history of an idea

Title
The making of Black lives matter : a brief history of an idea / Christopher J. Lebron.
Author
Lebron, Christopher J.
Publication
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library Sc D 17-1026Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Description
xxii, 187 pages; 22 cm
Summary
"Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful and uncompromising campaign demanding redress for the brutal and unjustified treatment of black bodies by law enforcement in the United States. The movement is only a few years old, but as Christopher J. Lebron argues in this book, the sentiment behind it is not; the plea and demand that "Black Lives Matter" comes out of a much older and richer tradition arguing for the equal dignity--and not just equal rights--of black people. The Making of Black Lives Matter presents a condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Drawing on the work of revolutionary black public intellectuals, including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Lebron clarifies what it means to assert that "Black Lives Matter" when faced with contemporary instances of anti-black law enforcement. He also illuminates the crucial difference between the problem signaled by the social media hashtag and how we think that we ought to address the problem. As Lebron states, police body cameras, or even the exhortation for civil rights mean nothing in the absence of equality and dignity. To upset dominant practices of abuse, oppression and disregard, we must reach instead for radical sensibility. Radical sensibility requires that we become cognizant of the history of black thought and activism in order to make sense of the emotions, demands, and argument of present-day activists and public thinkers. Only in this way can we truly embrace and pursue the idea of racial progress in America."--Book jacket.
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Introduction: Naming the dead in the name of the living -- American shame and real freedom -- Cultural control against social control: the radical possibilities of the Harlem Renaissance -- For our sons, daughters, and all concerned souls -- Where is the love? The hope for America's redemption -- The radical lessons we have not yet learned -- Afterword: Nobody's protest essay.
Call Number
Sc D 17-1026
ISBN
  • 9780190601348 (hardcover : alk. paper)
  • 0190601345 (hardcover : alk. paper)
LCCN
  • 2016042413
  • 40027281699
OCLC
960033716
Author
Lebron, Christopher J., author.
Title
The making of Black lives matter : a brief history of an idea / Christopher J. Lebron.
Publisher
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Local Note
Schomburg copy with dust jacket.
Chronological Term
2000-2099
Local Subject
Black author.
Other Standard Identifier
40027281699
Research Call Number
Sc D 17-1026
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