The first history of the dramatic civil rights battles fought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1920s, struggles that paved the way for advances made in the 1950s and 1960s.
These crucial struggles are traditionally overlooked by scholars who focus instead on other dynamic movements of the period, namely Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association and the Harlem Renaissance.
In "We Return Fighting," Mark Robert Schneider restores to history the significant contributions and pioneering efforts of the leaders and rank-and-file in the NAACP during the Jazz Age. He tells the complex and multi-layered story of courageous campaigns for voting rights and equal education, against segregation and lynching, that were fought in the streets, courts, press, meeting halls, city offices, state legislatures, and Washington lobbies. Schneider's engrossing account vividly portrays the NAACP's black leadership team of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and W.E.B. Du Bois, the heroic leaders of over 300 local branches in rural and industrial communities scattered across the nation, and the thousands of working-class members who labored tirelessly to keep the civil rights movement alive.
This is a powerful tale of extraordinary individuals who often risked their lives in an unwavering struggle to protect their constitutional rights in Jim Crow America. It is filled with dramatic, poignant, and at times chilling stories of lynchings, murders, rapes, gun battles, mobs, and courtroom confrontations.
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Mark Robert Schneider received his Ph.D. in history from Boston College and is an Adjunct Instructor in American History at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the author of Boston Confronts Jim Crow, 1890-1920. He lives in the Boston area.
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