Perry H. Howard

John Dittmer. Black Georgia in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920. Pp. xi, 230. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.

The author, Associate Professor of History at Tougaloo College, and his publisher, are to be congratulated for this book in the Blacks In The New World series. Extremely well written, what might have been a dry narrative takes on the excitment of a novel, as Dittmer recounts the struggles and dispair of black Georgians at the turn of the century. Expectations of progressive change were short-lived as reform took on a &dquo;for whites only&dquo; hue. The rich material is presented in 12 essays and includes 12 pages of biographical notes and a useful index. The study begins with New Years Day 1900, describing blacks in Savannah on the thirty-seventh anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The battle over Jim Crow was to be waged in the cities, and racial advancement rested upon the vain hopes for a self-sustaining black economy. Rather, Dittmer found that to be black in Georgia was &dquo;... to fall victim to white oppression, to live each day in the shadow of violence,&dquo; but that white supremacy did not destroy the spirit of the black community wherein &dquo;... blacks built their own institutions behind the wall of segregation, preaching race pride and practicing self-help&dquo; (p. 50). The new slavery consisted of peonage enforced by a contract labor law, and those who balked often found themselves in the infamous chain gangs. For blacks in Georgia cities (where the reform impulse beat), the Progressive Era meant further proscription. Dittmer’s description of Atlanta’s racial violence of September 1906, is an excellent account of the natural history of a riot. Black educational opportunities were thwarted at every turn and &dquo;one is impressed not so much by its shortcomings as by its achievements

12.50

This path-breaking text deals with the effects of federal civil rights legislation on the behavior and attitudes of the inhabitants of a single county in Mississippi--Panola County. These effects are examined in the three civil rights areas of voting, education, and economic opportunities. By using this smaller example, Frederick M. Wirts broader interest is to show how legislation can be used to effect social change on a large scale. The need to substitute empirical knowledge for abstract speculation motivates Wirts study. Wirt restricts his study to one county but with conclusions on comparative studies that illumine the emerging political sociology of the South. The author sketches the historical setting of Panola County, emphasizing on the demographic, economic, and political developments in recent decades. He then examines what has actually happened in race relations as an effect of civil rights laws affecting votes, schools, and jobs. Wirt utilizes documentary material from federal, state, and county sources; local newspapers; and records from business and other groups. But his closer understanding comes from personal interviews. Because federal law is the dynamic factor setting the social system in movement, the author explains the interactions between public opinion, the President, and the Congress, which in the end resulted in the laws on votes, schools, and jobs. He also deals with the differing machinery of sanctions and enforcement. Law has a huge effect on social change; and Wirt draws from his empirical study a systematic, inclusive statement of the factors affecting compliance with law, in conditions of conventional biases.