Keeping the Faith

Race, Politics, and Social Development in Jacksonville, Florida, 1940-1970

Abel A. Bartley

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2000
• Print ISBN: 9780313310355
• eBook ISBN: 9780313030475
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

An examination of the political and economic power of a large African American community in a segregated southern city; this study attacks the myth that blacks were passive victims of the southern Jim Crow system and reveals instead that in Jacksonville, Florida, blacks used political and economic pressure to improve their situation and force politicians to make moderate adjustments in the Jim Crow system. Bartley tells the compelling story of how African Americans first gained, then lost, then regained political representation in Jacksonville. Between the end of the Civil War and the consolidation of city and county government in 1967, the political struggle was buffeted by the ongoing effort to build an economically viable African American economy in the virulently racist South. It was the institutional complexity of the African American community that ultimately made the protest efforts viable. Black leaders relied on the institutions created during Reconstruction to buttress their social agitation. Black churches, schools, fraternal organizations, and businesses underpinned the civil rights activities of community leaders by supplying the people and the evidence of abuse that inflamed the passions of ordinary people. The sixty-year struggle to break down the door blocking political power serves as an intriguing backdrop to community development efforts. Jacksonville's African American community never accepted their second-class status. From the beginning of their subjugation, they fought to remedy the situation by continuing to vote and run for offices while they developed their economic and social institutions.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 When Days Were Dark: Jacksonville's African-American Community from the Civil War through 1945
• Chapter 2 The First African-American Strides Towards Political Power
• Chapter 3 The African-American Community During the 1950s: The Fight to Elect a Candidate
• Chapter 4 Haydon Burns and the African-American Community: The Dynamics of Machine Politics in the Modern Age
• Chapter 5 Reading, Writing, and Racism: The Fight to Desegregate the Duval County School System
• Chapter 6 The 1960 and 1964 Jacksonville Riots: The Difficult Years
• Chapter 7 Our Time Has Come: The Impact of African-American Voting on the 1967 Local Elections
• Chapter 8 Jacksonville and Duval County Consolidation: A Trick or Treat
• Chapter 9 Race Still Matters: A Look at the Bold New City of the South
• Bibliography
• Index
• A photo essay follows chapter four