Events

Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle

A Reading and signing by Laurie B. Green

Laurie Green explores the notion of African American 'freedom' in postwar Memphis. She demonstrates that the civil rights movement was battling an ongoing 'plantation mentality' based on race, gender, and power that permeated southern culture long before--and even after--the groundbreaking legislation of the mid-1960s. She points to the Memphis sanitation workers strike, with its slogan "I AM a Man!," as a clarion example of how the movement fought for a black freedom that consisted of not only constitutional rights but also social and human rights.

Laurie B. Green is assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin.