The Risen Phoenix charts the changing landscape of
black politics and political culture in the postwar South by focusing on the careers of six
black congressmen who served between the Civil War and the turn of the nineteenth century: John
Mercer Langston of Virginia, James Thomas Rapier of Alabama, Robert Smalls of South Carolina,
John Roy Lynch of Mississippi, Josiah Thomas Walls of Florida, and George Henry White of North
Carolina. Drawing on a rich combination of traditional political history, gender and black
history, and the history of U.S. foreign relations, the book argues that African American
congressmen effectively served their constituents' interests while also navigating their
way through a tumultuous post-Civil War Southern political
environment.Black congressmen represented their
constituents by advancing a policy agenda encompassing strong civil rights protections, economic
modernization, and expanded access to education. Local developments such as antiblack aggression
and violent electoral contests shaped the policies supported by newly elected black congressmen,
including the tactical decision to support amnesty for ex-Confederates. Yet black congressmen
ultimately embraced their role as national leaders and as spokesmen not only for their
congressional districts and states but for all African Americans throughout the South. As these
black leaders searched for effective ways to respond to white supremacy, disenfranchisement,
segregation, and lynching, they challenged the barriers of prejudice, paving the way for future
black struggles for equality in the twentieth century.
Copyright:
2016
Book Details
Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780813938738
Publisher:
University of Virginia Press
Date of Addition:
07/15/16
Copyrighted By:
the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia