Activists Speak Out

Reflections on the Pursuit of Change in America

NA NA

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9781349627592
• Print ISBN:
  9781349627615
  9780312229788

In Activists Speak Out, a group of fifteen American activists speak candidly about how and why they struggle for change. Their causes and strategies vary - in the areas of civil rights, gay and lesbian rights, the environment, women's issues, health, youth, education, labor, freedom of expression and the arts. But the lessons learned resonate across geographic and ideological boundaries. Whether working as grass-roots organizers or corporate insiders, in cities or in rural areas, the through-line of their observations is constant: Change is slow, and may take shape in unexpected ways. Small victories count. And, whatever the initial motivation to become engaged in the struggle for change - anger, compassion, frustration - the very process of engagement is itself transformative. You cross that line, and nothing is ever the same.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: You Cross That Line
• 1. Barbara Trent, documentary film/U.S. foreign policy
• 2. Bernice Johnson Reagon, music/civil rights
• 3. Norma Swenson, women's health
• 4. Joseph Marshall, youth at risk
• 5. Esther Kaplan, AIDS/ abortion rights/ civil rights
• 6. Gail Snowden, banking/underserved populations
• 7. Lynne Sowder, corporate art collecting
• 8. Lily Yeh, art/urban revitalization
• 9. Mel Chin; art/environment/mass media
• 10. Carl Anthony, environment/ social justice
• 11. Mary Ellen Beaver, migrant labor
• 12. Joan Robinett, industrial pollution
• 13. Amalia Mesa-Bains, art/Chicano movement
• 14. Skipp Porteous, freedom of expression
• 15. Cleve Jones, AIDS
• Conclusion: Getting in History’s Way
• Appendix
• Index