Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s
Gerald Horne
(Author)
Description
In August 1965 the predominantly black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles erupted in flames and violence following an incident of police brutality. This is the first comprehensive treatment of that uprising. Property losses reached hundreds of millions of dollars and the official death toll was thirty-four, but the political results were even more profound. The civil rights movement was placed on the defensive as the image of meek and angelic protestors in the South was replaced by the image of "rioting" blacks in the West. A "white backlash" ensued that led directly to Ronald Reagan's election as governor of California in 1966. In Fire This Time Horne delineates the central roles played by Ronald Reagan, Tom Bradley, Martin Luther King, Jr., Edmund G. Brown, and organizations such as the NAACP, Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, and gangs. He documents the role of the Cold War in the dismantling of legalized segregation, and he looks at the impact of race, region, class, gender, and age on postwar Los Angeles. All this he considers in light of world developments, particularly in Vietnam, the Soviet Union, China, and Africa.
Product Details
Price
$24.99
Publisher
Da Capo Press
Publish Date
August 22, 1997
Pages
452
Dimensions
5.43 X 8.27 X 0.92 inches | 1.0 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780306807923
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Gerald Horne has taught at the University of Zimbabwe and the University of California, Santa Barbara. His books include Black Liberation/Red Scare, Race for the Planet, and Black and Red: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Afro-American Response to the Cold War.