{"product_id":"the-accident-of-color-a-story-of-race-in-reconstruction-9780393247442","title":"The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Accident of Color\u003c\/em\u003e, Daniel Brook journeys to nineteenth-century New Orleans and Charleston and introduces us to cosmopolitan residents who elude the racial categories the rest of America takes for granted. Before the Civil War, these free, openly mixed-race urbanites enjoyed some rights of citizenship and the privileges of wealth and social status. But after Emancipation, as former slaves move to assert their rights, the black-white binary that rules the rest of the nation begins to intrude. During Reconstruction, a movement arises as mixed-race elites make common cause with the formerly enslaved and allies at the fringes of whiteness in a bid to achieve political and social equality for all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn some areas, this coalition proved remarkably successful. Activists peacefully integrated the streetcars of Charleston and New Orleans for decades and, for a time, even the New Orleans public schools and the University of South Carolina were educating students of all backgrounds side by side. Tragically, the achievements of this movement were ultimately swept away by a violent political backlash and expunged from the history books, culminating in the Jim Crow laws that would legalize segregation for a half century and usher in the binary racial regime that rules us to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Accident of Color\u003c\/em\u003e revisits a crucial inflection point in American history. By returning to the birth of our nation's singularly narrow racial system, which was forged in the crucible of opposition to civil rights, Brook illuminates the origins of the racial lies we live by.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/18\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780393247442\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2019 pg. 54\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/15\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/20\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2019 pg. 129\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2019 pg. 17\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Daniel Brook","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52571119190197,"sku":"9780393247442","price":23.76,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-accident-of-color-a-story-of-race-in-reconstruction-9780393247442","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}