Time Longer than Rope: A Century of African American Activism, 1850-1950

by Charles M. Payne (Editor), Adam Green (Editor)

The story of the civil rights movement is well-known, popularized by both the media and the academy. Yet the version of the story recounted time and again by both history books and PBS documentaries is a simplified one, reduced to an inspirational but ultimately facile narrative framed around Dr. King, the Kennedys, and the redemptive days of Montgomery and Memphis, in which black individuals become the rescued survivors. This story renders the mass of black people invisible, refusing to take seriously everyday people whose years of persistent struggle often made the big events possible.

Time Longer than Rope unearths the ordinary roots of extraordinary change, demonstrating the depth and breadth of black oppositional spirit and activity that preceded the civil rights movement. The diversity of activism covered by this collection extends from tenant farmers' labor reform campaign in the 1919 Elaine, Arkansas massacre to Harry T. Moore s leadership of a movement that registered 100,000 black Floridians years before Montgomery, and from women's participation in the Garvey movement to the changing meaning of the Lincoln Memorial. Concentrating on activist efforts in the South, key themes emerge, including the under appreciated importance of historical memory and community building, the divisive impact of class and sexism, and the shifting interplay between individual initiative and structural constraints.

More than simply illuminating a hitherto marginalized fragment of American history, Time Longer than Rope provides a crucial pre-history of the modern civil rights movement. In the process, it alters our entire understanding of African American activism and the very meaning of civil rights. "

Genres: History, The United States Of America, African American

584 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Charles M. Payne is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, where he is also an affiliate of the Urban Education Institute.

Reviews

[Brian]

Assigned reading for African-American History at Augusta University, a collection of academic articles depicting "A century of African American activism, 1850 - 1950". Sometimes the articles are long and dry, but always of value. I had to pay special attention to one regarding the turning of African-Americans to the communist party in America...interesting turn of events!

[AskHistorians]

A collection of essays looking at the activism of African Americans in the century before the 'short' civil rights movement.