Emancipation betrayed

About this book

"In this examination of African American politics and culture, Paul Ortiz throws a light on the struggle of black Floridians to create the first statewide civil rights movement against Jim Crow. Concentrating on the period between the end of slavery and the election of 1920, Emancipation Betrayed demonstrates that the decades leading up to the historic voter registration drive of 1919-1920 were marked by intense battles during which African Americans struck for higher wages, took up arms to prevent lynching, forged independent political alliances, boycotted segregated streetcars, and created a democratic historical memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Contrary to previous claims that African Americans made few strides toward building an effective civil rights movement during this period, Ortiz documents how black Floridians formed mutual aid organizations - secret societies, women's clubs, labor unions, and churches - to bolster dignity and survival in the harsh climate of Florida, which had the highest lynching rate of any state in the union."--Jacket.