Power and Equality: Home

Many Americans would like to believe that because the United States has now twice elected a black president, we live in a "postracial" society where discrimination and racism do not exist or only do among outlying, insignificant extremists. Yet, there has been much in the news to contest this notion--not only in the form of police brutality in black communities but also in persisting residential segregation and social inequities between different populations. In opposition to claims of a postracial society, then, are cries of pervasive structural racism and the rise of such activist groups as Black Lives Matter. We have also seen a resurgence in debates around affirmative action and reparations for slavery. While race may be a "social construct," it still has very real effects on national and global politics and society. This volume will explore the state of race in the United States today.

Jim Crow refers to a set of laws in many states, predominantly in the South, after the end of Reconstruction in 1877 that severely restricted the rights and privileges of African Americans. As a caste system of enormous social and economic magnitude, the institutionalization of Jim Crow was the most significant element in African American life until the 1960s Civil Rights Movement led to its dismantling. Racial segregation, as well as responses to it and resistance against it, dominated the African American consciousness and continued to oppress African Americans and other minorities, while engendering some of the most important African American contributions to society. This major encyclopedia is the first devoted to the Jim Crow era. The era is encapsulated through more than 275 essay entries on such areas as law, media, business, politics, employment, religion, education, people, events, culture, the arts, protest, the military, class, housing, sports, and violence as well as through accompanying key primary documents excerpted as side bars. This set will serve as an invaluable, definitive resource for student research and general knowledge. The authoritative entries are written by a host of historians with expertise in the Jim Crow era. The quality content comes in an easy-to-access format. Readers can quickly find topics of interest, with alphabetical and topical lists of entries in the frontmatter, along with cross-references to related entries per entry. Further reading is provided per entry. Dynamic sidebars throughout give added insight into the topics. A chronology, selected bibliography, and photos round out the coverage. Sample entries include Advertising, Affirmative Action, Armed Forces, Black Cabinet, Blues, Brooklyn Dodgers, Bolling v. Sharpe, Confederate Flag, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Detroit Race Riot 1943, Ralph Ellison, Eyes on the Prize, G.I. Bill, Healthcare, Homosexuality, Intelligence Testing, Japanese Internment, Liberia, Minstrelsy, Nadir of the Negro, Poll Taxes, Rhythm and Blues, Rural Segregation, Sharecropping, Sundown Towns, Booker T. Washington, Works Project Administration, World War II.

Amid the widespread spin and skewed analysis that is commonplace to media and politics alike, the need for less filtered information and more raw facts is more pressing than ever. Black Stats, a compact and useful guide, skips over the assumptions, suppositions and hypotheses about trends and patterns in American society and offers up-to-date figures on black life in the United States today.

With all of the progress African Americans have made, they still face many risks that threaten the entire race or place segments in jeopardy of survival. This work examines the widespread problem and suggests solutions. * Examines up-to-date statistical data on the primary issues negatively impacting African Americans * Provides extensive literary and data analysis of the issues addressed * Discusses what can be done to improve the condition of African Americans * Supplies concise background and investigates the implications of each key issue * Includes an extensive bibliographic list of references for all issues discussed

Although severely regulated in the 19th century, the emigration of Asian peoples to America has proven to be culturally and socially significant. The diversity of Asian immigrants--a group that includes Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipinos, and others--has prevented any single, unified Asian identity from dominating the Asian-American community. Indeed, this characteristic has served to encourage a multicultural perspective within the community and strengthened each ethnic group's reliance on the family unit as a means of defining cultural identity. The Asian Americans focuses on the social history, customs, and traditions of Asian Americans across U.S. history. Black-and-white photographs and illustrations, box features, and further reading lists are scattered throughout this user-friendly resource.

This in-depth historical analysis highlights the enormous contributions of Chinese Americans to the professions, politics, and popular culture of America, from the 19th century through the present day. * Highlights the distinctive roles that Chinese Americans have added to the fabric of American life * Illustrates the experience of Chinese Americans with discrimination, resistance, and assimilation * Considers the émigrés of the Sinophone diaspora with entries on Cambodian-Chinese and Vietnamese-Chinese Americans * Offers a selection of fascinating primary documents that enrich the reader's experience * Reveals the problems that Chinese American women faced with the passage of the 1882 Exclusion Act

A revision of the popular previous edition published more than a decade earlier, this work examines today's U.S. Latino population--now arguably the most important "minority group" in the country, with numbers well over 50 million strong in an increasingly diverse and integrated America. * Uses the latest census data to document the demographic growth of this group and its importance in immigration, the U.S. workforce, and voting in America * Examines the misconception that the growth of the U.S. Latino population is solely based on immigration when in reality more babies are birthed by native mothers than by newly arrived immigrants * Provides an insightful discussion of minority status in the United States--Latino or otherwise--that challenges readers to reconsider their attitudes about immigration, the value of immigrants in American society, and ethnocentrism

Mexican Americans, like many other Americans, have a long history of struggle for equality and civil rights. Yet only in recent decades has that history begun to be included as part of mainstream American history. Bringing together a wealth of information on the Mexican American struggle for civil rights, this authoritative encyclopedia provides factual up-to-date information on the concepts, issues, plans, legislation, court decisions, events, organizations, and people involved in that long fight. It includes such leading figures as Corky Gonzales, Hector Perez GarcIa, Jovita Idar, and Alonso Perales, as well as many secondary leaders, and is rounded out with objective discussions of such topics as leadership, the movimiento, lynching, political exclusion, voting, and stereotyping. Appendices include a chronology and several basic documents critical to an understanding of the Mexican American Civil Rights struggle.
The first comprehensive encyclopedia on this aspect of Mexican American history, the book fills a noticeable gap in the literature. It includes more than 300 entries, six appendices, sources of additional information, cross-referencing, and a detailed index that makes the history readily available. The book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the Mexican American experience.

This Latino history textbook is an outstanding reference source that covers many different Latino groups within a single comprehensive narrative. * Provides information that is accessible to a general student audience, supplying a comprehensive narrative history that covers various Latino groups along with profiles of notable Latinos from every era * Covers all Latino groups, placing the history of Mexican Americans alongside the cultures and experiences of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, and Central and South Americans * Includes primary sources with guiding questions that will help students develop interpretive, critical thinking skills * Ideally suited to serve as a reference source and as a classroom survey text for students studying Latino history

At a time when politics is seemingly ruled by ideology and emotion and when immigration is one of the most contentious topics, it is more important than ever to cut through the rhetoric and highlight, in numbers, the reality of the broad spectrum of Latino life in the United States. From politics and the economy to popular culture, the arts, and ideas about race, gender, and family, Latino Stats both catalogues the inequities that plague Latino communities and documents Latinos' growing power and influence on American life.

Help readers attain the higher-level critical thinking and reading skills that are essential in a culture of diverse and contradictory opinions. This volume holds a collection of opposing essays across four chapters, over issues relating to the U.S. Latino Community. Readers will evaluate how the community is perceived, what immigration attitudes and polices affect the community, the political power that the community may hold, and the social issues that impact the U.S. Latino community.

Long considered the majority of the United States' population, European Americans originally arrived to the continent from many disparate places and linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Beginning with the British Puritans, the waves of European immigrants have come to America from Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands, to escape famine, revolution, and political or religious oppression, or simply to begin a new life. By the 21st century, these communities have become a ""melting pot"" even as they maintain many of their original customs. The European Americans examines the history of this ethnic group in America, as well as the foods they ate, how they dressed, entertainment, work, education, popular pastimes, political activity, and their contributions and conflicts in American society. This new title is essential reading for anyone interested in this diverse ethnic group.

Virtually every aspect of American culture has been influenced by Irish immigrants and their descendants. This encyclopedia tells the full story of the Irish-American experience, covering immigration, assimilation, and achievement. * Demonstrates the intricate--and far-reaching--nature of the Irish-American connection * Covers the variety of the Irish-American political experience in the North and South rather than focusing only on northern populations * Distinguishes between the experience of Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics * Highlights the Irish propensity for inventiveness in America and Irish contributions to business and technology * Discusses the prominence of the Irish in the Catholic Church in the United States

Collection of essays describing the conditions in Ireland that led to major migration to the United States, life in America after the immigrants arrived, the slow assimilation of Irish into American culture, and describing the experiences of several

This installment in the critically acclaimed Contemporary Debates series uses evidence-based documentation to provide a full and impartial examination of beliefs and claims made about Muslim individuals, families, and communities in the United States. * Provides evidence-based information about American Muslims and their historical and current roles in American life and culture * Surveys and explains ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity among the US Muslim population * Offers an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of Islamophobia and its impact on American Muslims * Objectively examines claims that Muslims are "un-American" or potential threats to American national security and society

Arab Americans define themselves by their shared language as opposed to similar religious or cultural practices. Even this distinction is problematic, however, as some immigrants from Arab countries, such as Kurds, Circassians, and Berbers do not speak Arabic. There is also a common misconception that Arab Americans are predominantly Muslim, when in fact the majority of the Arab-speaking community in the United States is Christian. These complex and often divisive distinctions have deterred Arab Americans' establishment of large communities, although small enclaves have formed in California, New Jersey, and Michigan. The Arab Americans explores the history of this ethnic group in the U.S., including their social history, customs, and traditions, as well as their contributions and conflicts in American society. This engaging new title is ideal for history buffs or anyone interested in Arab American immigration history.

"Nothing will be the same again." Americans scarred by the experience of 9/11 often express this sentiment. But what remains the same, argues Jack Shaheen, is Hollywood's stereotyping of Arabs. In his new book about films made after 9/11, Shaheen finds that nearly all of Hollywood's post-9/11 films legitimize a view of Arabs as stereotyped villains and the use of Arabs and Muslims as shorthand for the "Enemy" or "Other." Along with an examination of a hundred recent movies, Shaheen addresses the cultural issues at play since 9/11: the government's public relations campaigns to win "hearts and minds" and the impact of 9/11 on citizens and on the imagination. He suggests that winning the "war on terror" would take shattering the centuries-old stereotypes of Arabs, and frames the solutions needed to begin to tackle the problem and to change the industry and culture at large.

Few other immigrant peoples have exerted such pervasive influence, have left so deep an impression, have made their values and concerns so central to the destiny of their new country. In Making the Irish American, J.J. Lee and Marion R. Casey offer a feast of twenty-nine perspectives on the turbulent, vital, endlessly fascinating story of the Irish in America. Combining original research with reprints of classic works, these essays and articles extend far beyond a survey to offer a truly rich understanding of the Irish immigrant impact on America, and America's impact on the Irish immigrant.

Collection of essays describing the conditions in Ireland that led to major migration to the United States, life in America after the immigrants arrived, the slow assimilation of Irish into American culture, and describing the experiences of several

For all its foundation on the principles of religious freedom and human equality, American history contains numerous examples of bigotry and persecution of minorities. Now, author Philip Perlmutter lays out the history of prejudice in America in a brief, compact, and readable volume. Perlmutter begins with the arrival of white Europeans, moves through the eighteenth and industrially expanding nineteenth centuries; the explosion of immigration and its attendant problems in the twentieth century; and a fifth chapter explores how prejudice (racial, religious, and ethnic) has been institutionalized in the educational systems and laws. His final chapter covers the future of minority progress.

This installment in the critically acclaimed Contemporary Debates series uses evidence-based documentation to provide a full and impartial examination of beliefs and claims made about Muslim individuals, families, and communities in the United States. * Provides evidence-based information about American Muslims and their historical and current roles in American life and culture * Surveys and explains ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity among the US Muslim population * Offers an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of Islamophobia and its impact on American Muslims * Objectively examines claims that Muslims are "un-American" or potential threats to American national security and society

Exploring the experience of Muslims in America following 9/11, this book assesses how anti-Muslim bias within the U.S. government and the larger society undermines American security and democracy. * Provides a history of Muslim experience in the United States up to September 11 * Highlights legislation that discriminates against Muslims * Presents information appropriate for academic reading, professionals within the field of homeland security and counterterrorism, and anyone interested in the relationship between national security and civil rights

For many Americans, the words 'American' and 'Muslim' simply do not marry well; for many the combination is an anathema, a contradiction in values, loyalties, and identities. This is the story of one American Muslim family--the story of how, through their lives, their schools, their friends, and their neighbors, they end up living the challenges, myths, fears, hopes, and dreams of all Americans. They are challenged by both Muslims who speak for them and by Americans who reject them. In this moving memoir, Idliby discusses not only coming to terms with what it means to be Muslim today, but how to raise and teach her children about their heritage and religious legacy. She explores life as a Muslim in a world where hostility towards Muslims runs rampant, where there is an entire industry financed and supported by think tanks, authors, film makers, and individual vigilantes whose sole purpose is to vilify and spread fear about all things Muslim. Her story is quintessentially American, a story of the struggles of assimilation and acceptance in a climate of confusion and prejudice--a story for anyone who has experienced being an "outsider" inside your own home country.

This beautiful book tells the nostalgic tale of how millions of Jewish immigrants entered America through the portal of the Lower East Side. There in New York City they struggled and ultimately flourished in a neighborhood that was the center of Jewish work, family, and culture. For more than fifty years, the Lower East Side spawned newly-mined Americans, including entertainment icons like George Burns and Ira Gershwin, gangsters like Meyer Lansky, and an extraordinary array of people who would go on to transform American society.     

America is home to nearly 6 million Jews. From the time of their arrival in North America in 1654 to the present day, Jews have overcome barriers to their acceptance, worked hard to improve life for their children, and preserved their heritage. In the process, Jews have made America a more pluralistic society. Editor Adriane Ruggiero has compiled a collection of essays that provides a candid and rich history of Jewish immigration to America. The essays express the problems, successes, and issues encountered in the search for a better life. An entire chapter is dedicated to biographical content on notable Jewish Immigrants. This resource is perfect as an eye-opening historical survey, but is also great for report-writing and research.

This four-volume set documents the complexity and richness of women's contributions to American history and culture, empowering all students by demonstrating a more populist approach to the past. * Provides significantly more detail than typical reference works on women's history and culture, enabling readers to better appreciate the contributions of women of all socio-cultural statuses * Covers the astounding range of American women's experience, including women of various economic and racial statuses, religious affiliations, political and ideological identifications, and sexualities * Includes a significant selection of primary documents, thereby combining the educational power of secondary and primary literature to create a richer learning experience for users

Chicago-based writer, artist, and civil rights attorney Rowland covers the period from the 1600's to the early 1900s in the first section, then examines developments in the 20th century in a long second section. Final sections look at the politics of female adolescence and violence and women, mainly as contemporary issues but with some historical context.

This encyclopedia chronicles over 300 years of movements, legislation, court cases, and notable women, covering labour issues, sufferage, literature, medicine, equality, politics, athletics, and women's organizations.

This new three-volume set is an accessible and scholarly reference that provides a comprehensive survey of lesbian and gay history and culture in the United States. Long needed by researchers, the "Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America includes approximately 545 articles ranging from short biographical entries to longer essays surveying topics such as the Stonewall riots, federal law and policy, same-sex institutions and AIDS. Wide-ranging in scope, this new encyclopedia complements courses in a variety of disciplines, including history, American studies, literature, psychology, sociology and others. Features include a guide to archival sources, a chronology/timeline, a historical overview essay and a comprehensive index.

LGBTQ STATS chronicles the ongoing LGBTQ revolution, providing critical statistics, and draws upon and synthesizes newly collected data. Deschamps and Singer provide chapters on family and marriage, workplace discrimination, education, youth, criminal justice, and immigration, as well as evolving policies and laws affecting LGBTQ communities. A lively, accessible, and eye-opening snapshot, LGBTQ STATS offers an invaluable resource for activists, journalists, lawmakers, and general readers who want the facts and figures on LGBTQ lives in the twenty-first century.

Milestones of gay and lesbian life in the United States are brought together in the first-ever nonfiction book published specifically for teens.   Profusely illustrated with archival images, the groundbreaking Gay America reveals how gay men and women have lived, worked, and loved for the past 125 years. Gays and lesbians play a very prominent role in American life today, whether grabbing headlines over political gains, starring in and being the subject of movies and television shows, or filling the streets of nearly every major city each year to celebrate Gay Pride. However, this was not always the case, and this book charts their journey along with the history of the country.   First touching on colonial times, the book moves on to the Victorian period and beyond, including such historical milestones as the Roaring ’20s, the Kinsey study, the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s, the Beat generation, Stonewall, disco, AIDS, and present-day battles over gay marriage. Providing a sense of hope mixed with pride, author Linas Alsenas demonstrates how, within one century, gay women and men have gone from being socially invisible to becoming a political force to be reckoned with and proud members of the American public living openly and honestly. The book includes a bibliography and an index.

The sweeping story of the struggle for gay and lesbian rights--based on amazing interviews with politicians, military figures, and members of the entire LGBT community who face these challenges every day: "This is the history of the gay and lesbian movement that we've been waiting for" (The Washington Post). The fight for gay and lesbian civil rights--the years of outrageous injustice, the early battles, the heart-breaking defeats, and the victories beyond the dreams of the gay rights pioneers--is the most important civil rights issue of the present day. In "the most comprehensive history to date of America's gay-rights movement" (The Economist), Lillian Faderman tells this unfinished story through the dramatic accounts of passionate struggles with sweep, depth, and feeling. The Gay Revolution begins in the 1950s, when gays and lesbians were criminals, psychiatrists saw them as mentally ill, churches saw them as sinners, and society victimized them with hatred. Against this dark backdrop, a few brave people began to fight back, paving the way for the revolutionary changes of the 1960s and beyond. Faderman discusses the protests in the 1960s; the counter reaction of the 1970s and early eighties; the decimated but united community during the AIDS epidemic; and the current hurdles for the right to marriage equality. "A compelling read of a little-known part of our nation's history, and of individuals whose stories range from heart-wrenching to inspiring to enraging to motivational" (Chicago Tribune), The Gay Revolution paints a nuanced portrait of the LGBT civil rights movement. A defining account, this is the most complete and authoritative book of its kind.

In the face of injustice, people band together to work for change, and through their influence, what was once unthinkable becomes common. This title traces the history of the disability rights movement in the United States, including the key players, watershed moments, and legislative battles that have driven social change. Iconic images and informative sidebars accompany compelling text that follows the movement from the work of early activists to bring dignity to the lives of people in institutions through the fight to make society adapt to the needs of people with disabilities and up to new legislative triumphs in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Features include a glossary, selected bibliography, Web sites, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and essential facts. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

James Charlton has produced a ringing indictment of disability oppression, which, he says, is rooted in degradation, dependency, and powerlessness and is experienced in some form by five hundred million persons throughout the world who have physical, sensory, cognitive, or developmental disabilities. Nothing About Us Without Us is the first book in the literature on disability to provide a theoretical overview of disability oppression that shows its similarities to, and differences from, racism, sexism, and colonialism. Charlton's analysis is illuminated by interviews he conducted over a ten-year period with disability rights activists throughout the Third World, Europe, and the United States. Charlton finds an antidote for dependency and powerlessness in the resistance to disability oppression that is emerging worldwide. His interviews contain striking stories of self-reliance and empowerment evoking the new consciousness of disability rights activists. As a latecomer among the world's liberation movements, the disability rights movement will gain visibility and momentum from Charlton's elucidation of its history and its political philosophy of self-determination, which is captured in the title of his book. Nothing About Us Without Us expresses the conviction of people with disabilities that they know what is best for them. Charlton's combination of personal involvement and theoretical awareness assures greater understanding of the disability rights movement.

The first significant book on the history and impact of the ADA-the "eyes on the prize" moment for disability rights The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the widest-ranging and most comprehensive piece of civil rights legislation ever passed in the United States, and it has become the model for disability-based laws around the world. Yet the surprising story behind how the bill came to be is little known. In this riveting account, acclaimed disability scholar Lennard J. Davis delivers the first behind-the-scenes and on-the-ground narrative of how a band of leftist Berkeley hippies managed to make an alliance with upper-crust, conservative Republicans to bring about a truly bipartisan bill. Based on extensive interviews with all the major players involved including legislators and activists, Davis recreates the dramatic tension of a story that is anything but a dry account of bills and speeches. Rather, it's filled with one indefatigable character after another, culminating in explosive moments when the hidden army of the disability community stages scenes like the iconic "Capitol Crawl" or an event some describe as "deaf Selma," when students stormed Gallaudet University demanding a "Deaf President Now!" From inside the offices of newly formed disability groups to secret breakfast meetings surreptitiously held outside the White House grounds, here we meet countless unsung characters, including political heavyweights and disability advocates on the front lines. "You want to fight?" an angered Ted Kennedy would shout in an upstairs room at the Capitol while negotiating the final details of the ADA. Congressman Tony Coelho, whose parents once thought him to be possessed by the devil because of his epilepsy, later became the bill's primary sponsor. There's Justin Dart, adorned in disability power buttons and his signature cowboy hat, who took to the road canvassing fifty states, and people like Patrisha Wright, also known as "The General," Arlene Myerson or "the brains," "architect" Bob Funk, and visionary Mary Lou Breslin, who left the hippie highlands of the West to pursue equal rights in the marble halls of DC. Published for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the ADA, Enabling Actspromises to ignite readers in a discussion of disability rights by documenting this "eyes on the prize" moment for tens of millions of American citizens.

People of Color in the United States: Contemporary Issues in Education, Work, Communities, Health, and Immigration examines a wide range of issues that affect people of color in American today, covering education, employment, health, and immigration. Edited by experts in the field, this set supplies current information that meets a variety of course standards in four volumes. Volume 1 covers education grades K 12 and higher education; volume 2 addresses employment, housing, family, and community; volume 3 examines health and wellness; and volume 4 covers immigration. The content will enable students to better understand the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities as well as current social issues and policy. The content is written to be accessible to a wide range of readers and to provide ready-reference content for courses in history, sociology, psychology, geography, and economics, as well as curricula that address immigration, urbanization and industrialization, and contemporary American society."

This single-volume work provides a concise, up-to-date, and reliable reference work that students, teachers, and general readers can turn to for a comprehensive overview of the civil rights movement--a period of time incorporating events that shaped today's society. * Includes primary documents such as the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 accompanied by introductory essays that provide key historical context * Supplies entries on a broad cast of actors, ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to Septima Clark, Virginia and Clifford Durr, Rosa Parks, and The Last Poets, thereby capturing the diversity of those who fought for racial equality * Provides sidebars and carefully selected images that bring this people's movement to life for high school readers--personal stories; descriptions of lesser-known individuals, organizations, and speeches; connections to popular culture; and maps of the freedom ride route

The Declaration of Independence stated that all men are created equal, yet the long and continuing struggle for civil rights in the United States seems to indicate otherwise. This reference guide details the most critical civil rights laws in U.S. history, moving from the period of slavery, to the Civil War, to the Reconstruction, to the civil rights era of the mid- to late-20th century. An overview essay introduces each period, and 36 individual laws are examined in essays placing the bills in their historical contexts. Each law is then presented in an edited and, when appropriate, annotated form, so students can read and understand the actual words of the law. Many of the notable and notorious laws in U.S. legislative history have come in the area of civil rights. Among these are the Fugitive Slave Act, the Missouri Compromise, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. This uncommonly helpful guide to U.S. civil rights legislation also includes timelines, a bibliography, and an index.

This ten-volume encyclopedia explores the social history of 20th-century America in rich, authoritative detail, decade by decade, through the eyes of its everyday citizens. * Entries covering the lives and contributions of ordinary citizens, social movements, religion, culture, the arts, economic and labor issues, and other aspects of American life across the 20th century * Contributions by accomplished researchers in the field of American social history * Sidebars providing additional emphasis on important issues and less well-known personalities * Detailed timelines for every decade, incorporating famous events with pivotal moments that changed the lives of everyday citizens * A thematically organized index for each of the encyclopedia's ten volumes