Not in Our Own Backyards : African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement in the North
By: Dr. Felton O. Best
ISBN 10: 1- 60797- 746 -X
ISBN 13: 978-1-60797-746-9
$48.00
- Description
- Reviews (1)
Description
About the Author
Dr. Felton O. Best is the Distinguished (CSU) Connecticut State University Professor of Philosophy, African American, and Religious Studies at the Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut. He has been at Central Connecticut State University since 1991. He has served as Chair of the Department of History (1994-1995), President of the CCSU Faculty Senate (2000-2004) and Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (2004-2011). Dr. Best in 1991 was the Founder of the African-American Studies Program and the Carter G. Woodson African –American Studies Lecture Series and presently continues as the Director (1991-Present). Dr. Best is also the Director of the Religious Studies Program at Central Connecticut State University (2011-Present).
Dr. Best, in 1992, earned a Ph.D. in History from the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio with specializations is Social, Cultural and Intellectual History of America, American Religious History, African-American History, History of Christianity, and, Comparative World Religions. He has presented his Research Findings and Publications at numerous Universities and Scholarly Academic Conferences. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and books which include Crossing the Color Line: A Biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872-1906 (Kendall Hunt Publishers) Oppression and Retaliation: Black Resistance Movements in the United States and Africa (Mellon Books, Ed.), Flames of Fire: Black Religious Leadership, Leadership from the Slave Community to the Million Man March (Mellon Books, Ed.), Black Women and Religion in the Diaspora ( Linus Publications) and Not in Our Own Backyards: African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement of the North ( Linus Publications).
Dr. Best is also the Senior Pastor of Sanctuary of Faith & Glory Church in Windsor, Connecticut and serves in the capacity of Bishop and Archbishop of various religious organizations.
Issa Muhammad (V. Leslie White), University of Central Florida –
Professor Best argued that many scholars of the African American experience had misread the structure and struggle of the Civil Rights movement north of the Mason-Dixon Line. His analysis that while the term “Civil Rights” was used as a generic term in both the deep South and Urban North; the struggle in the North was fueled by a fever of Black nationalist thought and political urban Black aggression. The professor’s views are enlightening and refreshing. “Not in Our Own Backyards” is a revisionist work that that adds to the literature on the subject. The work surely raises new and controversial questions to a period that we thought we knew and understood.
Professor Best challenges traditional scholars to review the literature and take a pause at their research on Black Civil Rights activism in the Black urban north. While the book is a serious read generalists will enjoy the book as much as the seasoned scholar.