The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture

Blair L. M. Kelley

In this compelling work of African American history, Blair L. M. Kelley examines the streetcar boycotts that swept across the South during the era of Plessy v. Ferguson. Focusing on the everyday struggles of Black passengers, activists, workers, and community leaders, the book reveals how battles over segregated transportation became larger contests over citizenship, dignity, mobility, and political power. Kelley traces the organization, strategy, and significance of these campaigns, showing how they nurtured traditions of collective action that would shape the modern civil rights movement. Richly researched and attentive to the voices of those who resisted, the book offers a fresh perspective on the long struggle for racial justice before the landmark victories of the twentieth century.

Heather Andrea Williams

In this deeply researched and moving history, the author chronicles African Americans’ determined efforts to reconstruct families fractured by slavery and the Civil War. Drawing on runaway advertisements, wartime records, Freedmen’s Bureau documents, newspapers, letters, and oral histories, the book reveals how formerly enslaved people searched for spouses, parents, children, and siblings while building new communities and identities. It explores memory, kinship, resilience, and the enduring consequences of family separation, offering a powerful account of African American agency in the aftermath of emancipation.