Robert R. Church Jr. and the African American Political Struggle
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A01=Darius J. Young
African American studies
Author_Darius J. Young
autobiography
black leaders
black vote
Category=DNBH
Category=JPHL
Category=JPVH
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
civil rights movement
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
gop
Lincoln league
Mary Church Terrell
Memphis
NAACP
Politics
republican party
Product details
- ISBN 9780813069449
- Weight: 289g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 12 Apr 2022
- Publisher: University Press of Florida
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This volume highlights the little-known story of Robert R. Church Jr., the most prominent black Republican of the 1920s and 1930s. Tracing Church’s lifelong crusade to make race an important part of the national political conversation, Darius Young reveals how Church was critical to the formative years of the civil rights struggle.
A member of the black elite in Memphis, Tennessee, Church was a banker, political mobilizer, and civil rights advocate who worked to create opportunities for the black community despite the notorious Democrat E. H. “Boss” Crump’s hold over Memphis politics. Spurred by the belief that the vote was the most pragmatic path to full citizenship in the United States, Church founded the Lincoln League of America, which advocated for the interests of black voters in over thirty states. He was instrumental in establishing the NAACP throughout the South as it investigated various incidents of racial violence in the Mississippi Delta. At the height of his influence, Church served as an advisor for Presidents Harding and Coolidge, generating greater participation of and recognition for African Americans in the Republican Party.
Church’s life and career offer a window into the incremental, behind-the-scenes victories of black voters and leaders during the Jim Crow era that set the foundation for the more nationally visible civil rights movement to follow.
A member of the black elite in Memphis, Tennessee, Church was a banker, political mobilizer, and civil rights advocate who worked to create opportunities for the black community despite the notorious Democrat E. H. “Boss” Crump’s hold over Memphis politics. Spurred by the belief that the vote was the most pragmatic path to full citizenship in the United States, Church founded the Lincoln League of America, which advocated for the interests of black voters in over thirty states. He was instrumental in establishing the NAACP throughout the South as it investigated various incidents of racial violence in the Mississippi Delta. At the height of his influence, Church served as an advisor for Presidents Harding and Coolidge, generating greater participation of and recognition for African Americans in the Republican Party.
Church’s life and career offer a window into the incremental, behind-the-scenes victories of black voters and leaders during the Jim Crow era that set the foundation for the more nationally visible civil rights movement to follow.
Darius J. Young is associate professor of history at Florida A&M University.
