$15.95
In 1968, parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., created an independent school board to run the failing elementary schools in the predominantly black community of Ocean Hill-Brownsville. In Detroit, striking black auto workers formed the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement to fight racism at the plant where they worked. At the University of Illinois, black students took over the student union building, demanding the creation of a black studies program and a black cultural center.
These stories and others are told in a new book released here today, Driven by the Movement: Activists of the Black Power Era. The book presents the inspirational stories of 20 African-Americans, “ordinary people who did extraordinary things for the black liberation struggle in the United States” during the Black Power decade of 1965-1975, author JoNina Abron-Ervin said.
“They came from all walks of life,” said Abron-Ervin, who was the last editor of the Black Panther newspaper. “They were single working mothers, married couples, students, teachers, members of the clergy, veterans, and others. Some put their personal lives on hold to organize against police brutality, poverty, hunger, substandard schools, colonialism in Africa, and other issues of the time.”
Abron-Ervin, a Memphis, Tenn.-based writer, is a veteran social justice activist and a retired Western Michigan University associate professor of communication.
Driven by the Movement is available in paper back and may be ordered online at pandlprinting.com and amazon.com.