Struggle for Equality
Blacks in Texas

by James M. Smallwood
1983, 66 pages, $10.95
ISBN 978-0-89641-120-3

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Struggle for Equality: Blacks in Texas is an original essay in the American Press Texas History Series. This series is written primarily for undergraduates and examines a wide variety of topics in Texas history. It is designed to offer fresh possible course materials in a format that permits flexibility for instructors and economy for students.

If the history of black Texans is surveyed, there can be no doubt that the state's Afro-American community has made great strides toward freedom, first-class citizenship, and economic uplift. Discriminated against for centuries, they also endured slavery, humanity's worst historical institution. Following emancipation, blacks found a hostile white society determined to deny them even a modicum of true freedom. After decades of struggle, the civil rights revolution brought change. Though still suffering from discrimination and partial segregation, blacks in Texas have recently begun to fulfill the promise of American life. This book focuses on their epic struggle.


CONTENTS

  • INTRODUCTION

  • THE BEGINNINGS

  • SLAVERY

  • RECONSTRUCTION

  • THE NADIR

  • TWENTIETH CENTURY STIRRINGS

  • THE CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION

  • CONCLUSION

  • SELECTED SECONDARY BIBLIOGRAPHY