Minority Rights in America

Ever since the Dominican missionary Bartolom de Las Casas (1476-1566) first raised civil and minority rights issues in an American context, they have figured prominently among some of the most profound and trying moments in American history.

Minority Rights in America consists of approximately 600 engagingly written alphabetically arranged entries on civil rights, political rights, and social rights in America since the days of Christopher Columbus. The rights of all Americans are included, with particular attention to African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, women, and other minority groups. Many of the entries include suggested readings to facilitate additional research and understanding.

Entries include:

• Biographical sketches of important historical figures who participated in the struggle to advance minority rights
• Important topics, organizations, and critical events
• Supreme Court cases, federal laws, and governmental agencies.

Rounding out this comprehensive reference are three useful appendixes and a consolidated bibliography. Appendixes include:

• Excerpts of more than seventy-five important documents organized logically in six parts: historic documents, historic speeches and writings, historic legislation, Supreme Court decisions, rights activism documents, and documents from U.S. government agencies
• Contact information for more than sixty associations and civil rights organizations
• A list, with full citations, of the court cases mentioned in the volume.

Sample of encyclopedic entries: Jane Addams, Affirmative action, AIDS and rights, Antisemitism, Ross Barnett, Bonus Army, Chicano studies, Shirley Chisholm, Clayton Act, Congress of Racial, Equality (CORE), Conscientious objectors, Crazy Horse, Defense of Marriage Act, Employment at will, Medgar Evers, Farm labor rights, Orval Faubus , Gerrymandering, Gray Panthers, Angelina Grimke, Haymarket Riot, J. Edgar Hoover, Langston Hughes, Indian Citizenship Act, Japanese internment, Jim Crow laws, Bartolom de Las Casas, Loving v. Virginia, Megan′s Law, Million Man March, Ralph Nader, National Immigration, William Penn, Puritan Separatist, Rap music, Right to die, Margaret Sanger, Smokers′ rights, Southern Governors, Association Trail of Tears, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Harold Washington, Youth Law Center, John Peter Zenger.

Alan Axelrod has written many works of military history, including The Real History of the Vietnam War (2012), The Real History of the Civil War (2013), A Savage Empire: Trappers, Traders, Tribes, and the Wars That Made America (2011), Selling the Great War: The Making of American Propaganda (2009), The Real History of the Cold War (2009), Patton’s Drive: The Making of America’s Greatest General (2009), Blooding at Great Meadows: Young George Washington and the Battle That Shaped the Man (2007), The Horrid Pit: The Battle of the Crater, the Civil War’s Cruelest Mission (2007), Miracle at Belleau Wood: The Birth of the Modern U.S. Marine Corps (2007), Bradley: A Biography (2006), and Patton: A Biography (2006). Among his reference books are Political History of America’s Wars (2007), Encyclopedia of Wars (2005), Encyclopedia of the United States Armed Forces (2005), American Treaties and Alliances (2000), and The Macmillan Dictionary of Military Biography (1998). A former college professor and consultant to numerous museums and cultural institutions, Axelrod has been a featured speaker at the Conference on Excellence in Government (Washington, D.C.), the Leadership Institute of Columbia College (Columbia, South Carolina), and the Annual Conference of the Goizueta School of Business, Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia). He has been a creative consultant (and on-camera personality) for The Wild West television documentary series (Warner Bros., 1993), Civil War Journal (A&E Network, 1994), and The Discovery Channel, and he has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CNNfn, CNBC, Fox Network affiliates in Philadelphia and Atlanta, and numerous radio news and talk programs, including on National Public Radio. Axelrod lives with his wife, Anita, an artist, in Atlanta and in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.