Full Product Details
Author: Akinyele Omowale Umoja
Publisher: New York University Press
Imprint: New York University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.90cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.612kg
ISBN: 9780814725245
ISBN 10: 0814725244
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 22 April 2013
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Umoja's eye-opening work is a powerful and provocative addition to the literature of the civil rights movement. -Publishers Weekly In We Will Shoot Back, historian Akinyele Omowale Umoja adds his voice to the flurry of recent scholarship that examines the relationship between armed self-defense and nonviolent protest in the black freedom struggle. Umoja Succeeds in his quest to enshrine a tradition of militant self-defense within Mississippi's black freedom struggle. -Journal of African American History Umoja (Georgia State Univ.) challenges the notion that the classic civil rights movement in the southern US was always a nonviolent movement. He provides new information and interpretations, which are a welcome contribution to knowledge of this period in the 1960s and an appreciated addition to the history of the civil rights movement. -Choice The book is meticulously researched and easily accessible. Part of a wider trend toward understanding social movements through targeted community studies and oral histories, Umoja's scholarship has contributed to a deeper, richer, and ultimately more accurate understanding of the civil rights/black power movement(s). The stereotype of cowering black sharecroppers, awaiting the intervention of well-meaning white do-gooders to rescue them from virulent Klansmen, cannot withstand the withering fire of We Will Shoot Back. -Christopher Strain,American Historical Review Akinyele Umoja's marvelously rich and exhaustive study of Mississippi will radically transform the debate about the role of nonviolence within the civil rights movement, proving that armed self-defense actually saved lives, reduced terrorist attacks on African American communities, and laid the foundation for unparalleled community solidarity. We Will Shoot Back is decidedly not a romantic celebration of gun culture, but a sometimes sobering, sometimes beautiful story of self-reliance and self-determination and a people's capacity to sustain a movement against all odds. -Robin D. G. Kelley,author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination [B]y extending the narrative of armed resistance through the late 1970s and emphasizing grassroots activism, this well-researched and beautifully written book succeeds in pushing historiographical boundaries. It will undoubtedly be of interest to scholars and students alike. -Journal of American History This riveting historical narrative relies upon oral history, archival material, and scholarly literature to reconstruct the use of armed resistance by Black activists and supporters in Mississippi to challenge racist terrorism, segregation, and fight for human rights and political empowerment from the early 1950s through the late 1970's. -Mark Anthony Neal Umoja follows confrontation in communities across the state through the ends of the 1970s, demonstrating how black Mississippians were ultimately able to overcome intimidation by mainstream society, defeat legal segregation, and claim a measure of political control of their state. -The Clarion-Ledger Timely and timeless... Expands our understanding of the hidden narratives of Mississippi's black armed resistance groups scattered through generations. -Kathleen Cleaver,Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow, Emory Law School In We Will Shoot Back, Umoja presents a compelling and important argument for the role of armed resistance played in the Mississippi freedom struggle... He successfully challenges the often silent narrative on the importance and prevalence of armed resistance in Mississippi and, in doing so, We Will Shoot Back underscores the importance of reexamining the Mississippi movement in all of its complexities. -Register of the Kentucky Historical Society [Umoja] asserts that armed resistance played a significant role in the Mississippi Black Freedom Struggle, providing a useful corrective to the assumption that southern blacks were passive in response to white terror and the Ku Klux Klan... Umoja's greatest contribution is to tell the stories of the less well-known black Mississippians who had the courage to confront White racism and fight back... Their stories and legacy provide an essential correction to the stereotype of indigenous southern black passivity perpetuated by such popular Hollywood fare as Mississippi Burning (1988). -Journal of American Culture Ranging from Reconstruction to the Black Power period, this thoroughly and creatively researched book effectively challenges long-held beliefs about the Black Freedom Struggle. It should make it abundantly clear that the violence/nonviolence dichotomy is too simple to capture the thinking of Black Southerners about the forms of effective resistance. -Charles M. Payne,Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago [Nelson Mandela's] sister recalled when considering that thing in him; that courage and light in the world would eventually herald... Akinyele Umoja, chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta and author of We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement concurs. -Asha Bandele,Ebony
Timely and timeless. . . . Expands our understanding of the hidden narratives of Mississippi's black armed resistance groups scattered through generations. -Kathleen Cleaver, Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow, Emory Law School
Akinyele Umoja's marvelously rich and exhaustive study of Mississippi will radically transform the debate about the role of nonviolence within the civil rights movement, proving that armed self-defense actually saved lives, reduced terrorist attacks on African American communities, and laid the foundation for unparalleled community solidarity. We Will Shoot Back is decidedly not a romantic celebration of gun culture, but a sometimes sobering, sometimes beautiful story of self-reliance and self-determination and a people's capacity to sustain a movement against all odds. -Robin D. G. Kelley,author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination Umoja's eye-opening work is a powerful and provocative addition to the literature of the civil rights movement. -Publishers Weekly [B]y extending the narrative of armed resistance through the late 1970s and emphasizing grassroots activism, this well-researched and beautifully written book succeeds in pushing historiographical boundaries. It will undoubtedly be of interest to scholars and students alike. -Journal of American History Ranging from Reconstruction to the Black Power period, this thoroughly and creatively researched book effectively challenges long-held beliefs about the Black Freedom Struggle. It should make it abundantly clear that the violence/nonviolence dichotomy is too simple to capture the thinking of Black Southerners about the forms of effective resistance. -Charles M. Payne,Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago Umoja (Georgia State Univ.) challenges the notion that the classic civil rights movement in the southern US was always a nonviolent movement. He provides new information and interpretations, which are a welcome contribution to knowledge of this period in the 1960s and an appreciated addition to the history of the civil rights movement. -Choice Timely and timeless... Expands our understanding of the hidden narratives of Mississippi's black armed resistance groups scattered through generations. -Kathleen Cleaver,Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow, Emory Law School The book is meticulously researched and easily accessible. Part of a wider trend toward understanding social movements through targeted community studies and oral histories, Umoja's scholarship has contributed to a deeper, richer, and ultimately more accurate understanding of the civil rights/black power movement(s). The stereotype of cowering black sharecroppers, awaiting the intervention of well-meaning white do-gooders to rescue them from virulent Klansmen, cannot withstand the withering fire of We Will Shoot Back. -Christopher Strain,American Historical Review This riveting historical narrative relies upon oral history, archival material, and scholarly literature to reconstruct the use of armed resistance by Black activists and supporters in Mississippi to challenge racist terrorism, segregation, and fight for human rights and political empowerment from the early 1950s through the late 1970's. -Mark Anthony Neal ...He asserts that armed resistance played a significant role in the Mississippi Black Freedom Struggle, providing a useful corrective to the assumption that southern blacks were passive in response to white terror and the Ku Klux Klan...Umoja's greatest contribution is to tell the stories of the less well-known black Mississippians who had the courage to confront White racism and fight back...Their stories and legacy provide an essential correction to the stereotype of indigenous southern black passivity perpetuated by such popular Hollywood fare as Mississippi Burning (1988). -, Journal of American Culture In We Will Shoot Back, Umoja presents a compelling and important argument for the role of armed resistance played in the Mississippi freedom struggle...he successfully challenges the often silent narrative on the importance and prevalence of armed resistance in Mississippi and, in doing so, We Will Shoot Back underscores the importance of reexamining the Mississippi movement in all of its complexities. -Register of the Kentucky Historical Society [Nelson Mandela's] sister recalled when considering that thing in him; that courage and light in the world would eventually herald...Akinyele Umoja, chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta and author of We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement concurs. -Asha Bandele,Ebony Provides an essential correction to the stereotype of indigenous southern black passivity. -Ron Briley,Journal of American Culture
Author Information
Akinyele Omowale Umoja is Professor and Chair of the Department of African-American studies at Georgia State University, where he teaches courses on the history of the civil rights and Black Power movements and other social movements. He is the author of We Will Shoot Back: Amed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement (NYU Press 2013). He has been a community activist for over 40 years.
