Free Radical: Ernest Chambers, Black Power, and the Politics of RaceTeklaAgbala Ali Johnson. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2012.

Abstract

Radical: Ernest Chambers, Black Power, and the Politics of Race Tekla Agbala Ali Johnson. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2012.In Radical: Ernest Chambers, Black Power, and the Politics of Race, author Tekla Ali Johnson examines the critical role of Ernest Chambers's work in the city of Omaha, the state of Nebraska, and within the US. Johnson uses careful detail to illustrate Chambers's deep commitment to his constituents, portraying his work as human rights advocate, state senator for nearly forty years, and Black Nationalist ideologue as all intertwined for human liberation. The strength of the book lies in Johnson's ability to provide the reader with broad view of Chambers's political acumen by establishing context that overlaps his early life and collegiate experiences, where his political antennae were raised and developed, to the sociopolitical living conditions of Blacks in Omaha and throughout the United States. Chambers served as the only African American state senator in the Nebraskan Unicameral throughout his career. Johnson's presentation provides critical insights into how local and national civil rights and Black struggles, connected with the African liberation movement, galvanized Chambers's own political identity. According to Johnson, Chambers's overall philosophy centered on a belief in humanism where all people were treated humanely, and he openly expressed his discontent for the injustices all around him (36).Johnson divides the book into seven chapters where two main themes emerge: Chambers as Defender of the Downtrodden and Chambers as Free Radical. These themes, borrowed from chapter title and title of the work, are mutually inclusive for Chambers's work. In the first four chapters, the author provides framework for better understanding the political challenges that Blacks faced in Omaha by detailing Chambers's education as radical (Chapter One), his connections to the community (Chapters Two and Three), and his learning resulting from his early experiences in the legislature (Chapter Four). Each of these chapters sets the stage for the reader to better comprehend his work as Free Radical. The descriptor of Chambers's political activism as radical is first situated within his unwillingness to align himself with either major political party. This non-affiliation was important in how he attempted to navigate both the local Omaha and the Nebraskan political terrain. Thus, Chambers was free to represent his constituents from power basis that came directly from the people without the connections to major political party-for both their benefits and constraints. This political freedom also allowed creative and unfettered space to imagine leadership and representation without restriction. Flis connections to the community included his staunch advocacy of their basic human rights; he served as Co-Chair of the Police Community Relations Board in North Omaha and was highly engaged as parent advocate in the local schools. To help the reader hear Chambers's own voice, Johnson includes plethora of statements from his essays which were crafted for local and national media, remarks from occasional appearances on the news, snippets from range of memos, and quotes from his varied speaking engagements. …