Jimmie R. Hawkins - Unbroken and Unbowed: A History of Black Protest in America

Advance Praise forUnbroken and Unbowed

By chronicling the history of Black-led protest in America, Rev. Hawkins both reveals a tradition of struggle for a more perfect union and unmasks the lie that Black protest is un-American. To receive this history is to know and know again that America would not be half the country she is if Black people had not believed her promises and worked with others to make them a reality. God bless Rev. Hawkins for telling the story and living it in his own leadership and witness today.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, Repairers of the Breach, and author, We Are Called to Be a Movement

Jimmie Hawkinss Unbroken and Unbowed uses the words by which Black Americans have named themselvesAfricans, Colored, Negro, Black, African Americanto trace five centuries of struggle by the sons and daughters of Africa, a struggle grounded in the radical assertion that a person cannot become a thing. Beyond the etymology of Black self-definition, this books astonishing ambition, which Hawkins richly fulfills, is to let us see American history with heartbreaking and often inspiring clarity. Its research is as deep as the abyss of our nations founding. From shipboard slave revolts and Reconstruction dreams, from the civil rights and Black Power movements to Rev. Dr. William Barbers Moral Mondays to Black Lives Matter, Hawkins calls every one of us to summon the courageand love and political willto confront this hard history and to alter its arc. Not everything that is faced can be changed, James Baldwin instructs, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

Timothy B. Tyson, author, Blood Done Sign My Name

This book is a must-read! Jimmie Hawkinss Unbroken and Unbowed: A History of Black Protest in America explores the history of Black protest over five hundred years in these yet-to-be United States. Articulately, definitively, and comprehensively, Hawkins shows that rather than solely victims of systemic racism and economic injustice, Black leaders are moral, political, and epistemological agents of change throughout every period of American history. This book documents that protest and resistance led by Black people has played a unique and key role in transforming the country into a more perfect union and inspires us to take action for justice and equality today.

Liz Theoharis, cochair, Poor Peoples Campaign, and Director, the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, Union Theological Seminary, New York

We finally have a careful, comprehensive, and complete history of Black protest in the United States. Hawkins follows the trajectory of Black social activism over many generations, reminding us that it is a rich and unbroken tradition. In this age of racial tribalism and reckoning, all Americans stand to benefit intellectually from reading Unbroken and Unbowed. It reminds us of not only how far we have come but also how far we must go to become the nation we have long claimed to be. This is a timely and immensely significant work!

Lewis V. Baldwin, author, There Is a Balm in Gilead: The Cultural Roots of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Unbroken and Unbowed is a wonderful exposition, summation, and interpretation of African American protest. Here, in a single volume, from enslaved past to engaged present, one traces the lineage and devastation of American racial animus toward Black people and the enduring African American protest against it. If, as Rev. Jimmie Hawkins rightly argues, Black protest is truth telling, this book is a scintillating record of a people proclaiming the truth of equality, in word and deed, to a country that has perpetually refused to acknowledge it. A historical survey steeped in contemporary reckoning, this book is an excellent resource for helping us understand and navigate our tumultuous time.

Brian Blount, President, Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, and author, Can I Get a Witness: Reading Revelation through African American Culture

Unbroken and Unbowed

Unbroken and Unbowed

A History of Black Protest in America

Jimmie R. Hawkins

2022 Jimmie R. Hawkins

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Book design by Sharon Adams

Cover design by designpointinc.com

Cover art by Jerry Lynn. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hawkins, Jimmie R., author.

Title: Unbroken and unbowed : a history of black protest in America / Jimmie R. Hawkins.

Other titles: History of black protest in America

Description: First edition. | Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: In this compelling and informative volume, Jimmie R. Hawkins walks the reader through the many forms of Black protest in American history, from precolonial times though the George Floyd protests of 2020Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021057729 (print) | LCCN 2021057730 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664267377 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646982332 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: African AmericansPolitics and governmentHistory. | African AmericansSocial conditionsHistory. | Protest movementsUnited StatesHistory. | Civil rights movementsUnited StatesHistory. | African AmericansHistory. | United StatesRace relationsHistory. | Anti-racismUnited StatesHistory.

Classification: LCC E184.A1 .H377 2022 (print) | LCC E184.A1 (ebook) | DDC 973/.0496073dc23/eng/20211208

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057729

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057730

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Contents

Introduction

Colin Kaepernick (right) and Eric Reid of the San Francisco 49ers kneel in protest during the national anthem prior to playing the Los Angeles Rams in their NFL game at Levis Stadium on September 12, 2016, in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images. Used with permission.)

Section 1

Slavers bringing captives on board a slave ship on Africas west coast. (This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.)

Section 2

The Underground Railroad, Charles T. Webber (18251911), United States, 1893, oil on canvas. (Bettman Archives. Used with permission.)

Section 3

A flag hanging outside the headquarters of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in New York City in 1936 bearing the words A Man was Lynched Yesterday. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images. Used with permission.)

Section 4

Stokely Carmichael, right, organizing local people for the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) in Alabama in 1966. His flyer features the original LCFO black panther logo. (Photographer unknown. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.)