Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Histories of Resistance and Struggle in Texas ed. by Max Krochmal and J. Todd Moye

Abstract

Reviewed by: Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Histories of Resistance and Struggle in Texas ed. by Max Krochmal and J. Todd Moye Steven Rosales Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Histories of Resistance and Struggle in Texas. Edited by Max Krochmal and J. Todd Moye. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021. Pp. xiv, 469. Paper, $35.00, ISBN 978-1-4773-2379-3; cloth, $105.00, ISBN 978-1-4773-2378-1.) Coalitional politics is a complicated and sometimes messy undertaking laden with varying degrees of rivalry, defensiveness, and hierarchy. Such complications have arguably assumed a new level of significance in the partisan politics of the modern day and in the efforts to interrogate the nation's past more critically. This anthology steps into this turmoil, and this Chicano historian of Chicanx history is impressed. The state of Texas, with its dual southern and southwestern identities, is a logical place to demonstrate the overlapping nature of "everyday acts of resistance" and institutionalized racism (p. 61). An overarching subdivision does exist in this volume, with African Americans in the spotlight for Part 1, followed by Chicanx struggles in Part 2. Coalitions in metropolitan areas become the focal point in Part 3. A fourth and final installment highlights the statewide Civil Rights in Black and Brown Oral History Project (CRBB), from which this work stems. Indeed, the power of oral history and its ability to capture moments often unseen and unheard through documentary evidence are clearly on display. Over five hundred video narrations were collected over two summers, with interviewers and other logistical support provided by multiple institutions throughout the state. The result is a "people's history" of statewide civil rights activism digitized using clever and modern methods on a website accessible to a wider general audience (p. 306). The CRBB and this anthology are a veritable dream for anyone involved in public history, oral history, and the digital humanities. A quick overview of the first two sections offers powerful examples of variance (rural versus urban, "leaders" versus everyday folk, and so on), with individual chapters tackling a variety of topics including segregation, student movements, and racialized violence within both communities. An additional [End Page 806] significant point for me is the willingness to tackle the legacy of Dr. Hector P. García and his off and on leadership of the American GI Forum, a post–World War II civil rights organization largely composed of Mexican American veterans. The literature surrounding both García and the organization is vast and hagiographic, and the determination to confront the long shadow of García and his many complexities is long overdue and refreshing. It is the third section where the theme of coalitional politics and behavior is confronted most vigorously, with the cities of San Antonio and Austin offering the most compelling examples. Young Black and Brown radicals in San Antonio forged ties of solidarity that included biracial support for Angela Davis, César Chávez and the United Farm Workers' grape boycott, as well as electoral cooperation to promote a mixed platform of Black and Brown candidates for city offices. Biracial efforts in Austin also included young radicals as well as formal legal efforts by more mainstream organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to sue for local redistricting to promote better electoral representation. My fear, however, is that the few examples of intersectionality found within the third section are structurally overwhelmed by the first two sections, which clearly illustrate separate trajectories of civil rights activism that seldom overlapped. Moreover, obvious sources of tension, such as the embrace of whiteness by some in the Mexican American community, a powerful point of debate within Chicanx historiography, need a fuller examination than what is offered here. Furthermore, the present-day context of these struggles in the wake of George Floyd's murder, including vocal elements of the Black Lives Matter movement that posit Black emancipation as the source of emancipation for all marginalized communities, could have been addressed. All of this is to say that on a case-by-case basis Black and Brown intersectionality did (and does) exist...