Social sciences

摘要

Haviland (history, St. Francis Coll.) has written a duel biography on James E. Jackson (1914-2007) and his wife, Esther Cooper (b. 1917), freedom fighters who helped birth the civil rights movement. The couple met while working in the Southern Negro Youth Congress and later as members of the American Communist Party and were key figures in the struggle for racial and economic equality during the Cold War. Haviland's accessible history examines the strains of early 20th-century communism that influenced mid-century thinking about civil rights. Seven chapters follow the couple from the Great Depression through World War II, in which James served in a segregated military, to the Cold War and their work on magazines including Freedomways. The author draws upon the rich archive of the couple's correspondence during wartime and the McCarthy investigations that hounded James, as well as interviews and organizational literature, ultimately presenting two people who gleaned strength from each other to fight social injustice on several fronts. VERDICT Haviland's use of personal correspondence brings this important period of history to life and shows the cost of those who worked in the black freedom movement. Highly recommended.