About this ebook
Bloody Lowndes is the true story of the people of rural Lowndes County, Alabama, who organized a radical experiment in democratic politics in 1966.
Winner of the 2010 Clinton Jackson Coley Award for the Best Book on local history from the Alabama Historical Association
Early in 1966, African Americans in Lowndes County, Alabama, aided by activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), established an all-black, independent political party called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). The group, whose ballot symbol was a snarling black panther, was formed in part to protest the barriers to black enfranchisement that had for decades kept every single African American of voting age off the county’s registration books. Even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, most African Americans in this overwhelmingly black county feared violent retaliation from whites if they dared register.
Amid this intimidating environment, the LCFO’s experiment in democratic politics inspired black people throughout the country to fight for civil and human rights in new and more radical ways, from SNCC organizer Stokely Carmichael, who used the county’s program as the blueprint for Black Power, to California activists Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, who adopted the panther as the namesake for their new, grassroots organization: the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, which became the national organization of black militancy in the 1960s and 1970s.
Drawing on an impressive array of sources ranging from government documents to personal interviews with Lowndes County residents and SNCC activists, history professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries reveals the remarkable full story of the Lowndes County freedom struggle and its contribution to the larger civil rights movement.
Winner of the 2010 Clinton Jackson Coley Award for the Best Book on local history from the Alabama Historical Association
Early in 1966, African Americans in Lowndes County, Alabama, aided by activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), established an all-black, independent political party called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). The group, whose ballot symbol was a snarling black panther, was formed in part to protest the barriers to black enfranchisement that had for decades kept every single African American of voting age off the county’s registration books. Even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, most African Americans in this overwhelmingly black county feared violent retaliation from whites if they dared register.
Amid this intimidating environment, the LCFO’s experiment in democratic politics inspired black people throughout the country to fight for civil and human rights in new and more radical ways, from SNCC organizer Stokely Carmichael, who used the county’s program as the blueprint for Black Power, to California activists Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, who adopted the panther as the namesake for their new, grassroots organization: the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, which became the national organization of black militancy in the 1960s and 1970s.
Drawing on an impressive array of sources ranging from government documents to personal interviews with Lowndes County residents and SNCC activists, history professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries reveals the remarkable full story of the Lowndes County freedom struggle and its contribution to the larger civil rights movement.
Ratings and reviews
5.0
2 reviews
A Google user
- Flag inappropriate
May 22, 2012
I have read quite a few books in Civil Rights and the movement, but the specific examination of Lowndes County and the origins of the Black Panther Party was a thoroughly enjoying read. Would recommend to anyone interested in the Civil Rights movement or about the struggle of what Jeffries calls "a people fighting for their basic freedom rights"
Dwayne Bryant
- Flag inappropriate
September 13, 2019
Very informative. !!
About the author
Hasan Kwame Jeffries is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University, where he holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
