Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969

Freedom's Sword is the first history to detail the remarkable, lasting achievements of the NAACP's first sixty years. From its pivotal role in overturning the Jim Crow laws in the South to its twenty-year court campaign that culminated with Brown v. the Board of Education, the NAACP has been at the forefront of the struggle against American racism. Gilbert Jonas, a fifty-year veteran of the organization, tracks America's political and social landscape period by period, as the NAACP grows to 400,000 members and is recognized by both blacks and whites as the leading force for social justice. Jonas recounts the historic combined efforts of ordinary citizens and black leaders such as W.E.B. Dubois, James Weldon Johnson, and Thurgood Marshall to root out white-only political primaries, separate schools, and segregated city buses. Freedom's Sword is a vivid and passionately written account of the single most influential secular organization in black America.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Julian Bond Introduction 1. Creating a Change Agent: the NAACP's Early Years 2. The Law As a Weapon Against Unjust Laws 3. Southern Retaliation Against Negro Determination 4. Leading the African-American Quest for Political Power 5. Comes the Revolution: The Struggle Between the NAACP and the Communist Party USA 6. World War II and Its Consequences for Race 7. The Politics of Political Advancement 8. Revolution at the Ballot Box 9. Black Workers, White Unions and the Struggle for Job Equality 10. Head-to-Head with the Garment Workers Union 11. The End of Pretense: Organized Labor Refuses to Desegregate 12. Roy Wilkins: The Gentle Giant 13. The NAACP Develops Financial Muscle Epilogue

About the Author :
Gilbert Jonas is a civil rights activist and journalist who has worked with the NAACP for over fifty years.

Review :
‘For many Barrack Obama represents the fulfilment of the ideal we call the American Dream and indeed the embodiment of the work of the NAACP … This first hand insider view gives a comprehensive account of the personalities and politics of the movement and the relationship between organisation and the leadership … Freedom’s Sword is an important book and deserves a place in our libraries both for its detail on the NAACP and for our understanding of the civil rights movement.’ – SATH History Teaching Review "Perhaps the most comprehensive and detailed account of the NAACP's eminent history, Freedom's Sword promises that the organization's legendary leadership and visionary activism is crisply remembered for generations to come ." -- Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Former president of the National Urban League "This long overdue account of the NAACP's first sixty years offers both an insider's view of the movement and a comprehensive history of it. Scholars of twentieth-century America will be in Jonas's debt for bringing it together in one worthy volume ." -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University "Gilbert Jonas's Freedom's Sword is invaluable as the most comprehensive account we have of the first six decades of the NAACP's historic struggle to overcome racism--'the one huge wrong of the American people.' It is equally valuable as a history lesson in the essential role that organizing will play if 'God's despised poor,' our sisters and brothers with beautiful darker skin, are to fully and equally share in a greater society. Our celebrity-crazed culture can learn from Freedom's Sword that not even the inspired genius and commitment of W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Mitchell, and Roy Wilkins could have brought us anti-lynching laws, Brown v. Board of Education, the Voting Rights Act and the many other milestones toward equal rights for every race without the organized people-power of African Americans united in the NAACP ." -- Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General "It is a work, well researched and documented, that needs to be read by any person seeking to understand the role that race-consciousness has played and continues to play in our society...The book is filled with examples of cases and cause undertaken by the NAACP that would prove itself worthy of the support from among African Americans themselves. The book is a solid work of scholarship and journalism." -- ForeWord Magazine "Freedom's Sword captures the courage, tenacity and moral zeal of a set of 'new abolitionists' determined to deliver racial democracy in the United States...Gilbert Jonas has made an important contribution to the body of literature on the NAACP. His is a thoroughly informed perspective on a nearly 100-year fight against the arrayed forces of bigotry and the inhuman tradition of American racism. In pulling together the disparate strands of this story, Jonas has provided readers with a useful general history of the most influential advocacy organization of the 20th century and helped replace broad outlines with bold-printed details ." -- The Crisis "It may have taken 35 years to happen, but the release of Gilbert Jonas' chronicles of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) provides both a comprehensive history and insider's look into one of the most successful civil rights organizations of the 20th Century. From its 20-year court campaign that culminated with Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP has been at the forefront of the struggle against American racism. The NAACP started as a grass roots organization founded in 1909 by white liberals appalled by racial violence. In Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909-1969, the 50-year veteran of the organization tracks America's political and social landscape through each period. He highlights the efforts of ordinary citizens and Black leaders such as W. E. B. Dubois, James Weldon Johnson, and Thurgood Marshall to root out white-only political parties, segregated schools and city buses." -- Black Diaspora "Jonas has undertaken a worthy cause in writing an institutional history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He maintains that the N.A.A.C.P. has been stinted in historical literature that centers on King and groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He has a point. And Jonas has lived a good deal of this saga himself, as a veteran of 50 years as a volunteer and then staff member of the N.A.A.C.P. Perhaps he would have served his goal better in a memoir. Indeed, the best pages of the book, depicting the punctilious and principled Roy Wilkins, rely greatly on firsthand observation. Otherwise, while "Freedom's Sword" contains valuable facts and details for scholars, general readers may be frustrated by its poor organization and boosterism about the book's heroes. ." -- New York Times Book Review "Freedom's Sword is an important book that deserves a broad readership. It will have value to those with a particular interest in the NAACP and the civil rights movement. Beautifully illustrated and impressively researched, it will appeal to the general reader and the academic specialist." -- The Journal of American History "[Freedom's Sword] brings together much breadth of study [on the civil rights movement] and is a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the NAACP's vital work." -- The Journal of American Studies ‘For many Barrack Obama represents the fulfilment of the ideal we call the American Dream and indeed the embodiment of the work of the NAACP … This first hand insider view gives a comprehensive account of the personalities and politics of the movement and the relationship between organisation and the leadership … Freedom’s Sword is an important book and deserves a place in our libraries both for its detail on the NAACP and for our understanding of the civil rights movement.’ – SATH History Teaching Review