From Rights to Economics

The Ongoing Struggle for Black Equality in the U.S. South

Timothy J. Minchin

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9780813081069, 9780813030920
• eBook ISBN: 9780813073835
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: History

Examining the African American struggle for economic parity in the South after the 1960s

Rich with the voices of Black and white southern workers, From Rights to Economics shows how African Americans have continued fighting for economic parity in the decades since the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

Using oral histories and case studies that focus on Black activism throughout the entire South, award-winning historian Timothy Minchin examines the work of grassroots groups—including the Southern Regional Council and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund—who struggled with the economic dimensions of the movement.

While white workers and managers resisted integration, activists' efforts gradually secured a wider range of job opportunities for Black people. Minchin shows, however, that the decline of manufacturing industry in the South has been especially difficult for the African American community, wiping out many good jobs just as Black people were gaining access to them.

Minchin also offers a detailed discussion of a major school integration battle in Louisville, Kentucky, and examines the role of affirmative action in the ongoing Black struggle.



A volume in the series New Perspectives on the History of the South, edited by John David Smith

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Beyond the Dominant Narrative: The Ongoing Struggle for Civil Rights in the U.S. South, 1965–1980
• 2. “They didn’t want you around them”: The Battle to Integrate Southern Industry in the Post-1965 Era
• 3. “Soberly, responsibly, never noisily”: The Southern Regional Council and the Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity
• 4. “A brand new shining city”: Floyd B. McKissick and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1970s
• 5. “They don’t care nothing for Blacks”: The Sledge Case and the Long Struggle for Civil Rights at J. P. Stevens
• 6. “We were trying to get equal employment”: The Myers Case and the Battle to Integrate Gilman Paper Company
• 7. “They over there and we over here”: The Fight for Civil Rights in Port St. Joe, Florida, 1938–1997
• 8. “Meany doesn’t sign my check”: The AFL-CIO and the Louisville Busing Crisis of 1975
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index