Defining the Struggle: National Organizing for Racial Justice, 1880-1915

Susan Carle

Abstract

• Uncovers overlooked early history of the law-related aspects of national civil rights organizing
• Disproves standard assumptions that significant national civil rights organizing started in the 1930s
• Dates the commencement of the dual strategy of civil rights test case litigation coupled with national organization building to the 1880s, rather than the 1930s as commonly assumed
• Shows that early civil rights activists were pursuing a racial justice strategy that blended political and civil rights equality with social welfare and economic fairness concerns