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Too often Americans view the Civil Rights movement in dichotomous terms. The southern movement was nonviolent, focused on racial integration, and largely successful. In contrast, the northern movement was violent, focused on self-determination, and largely unsuccessful. Recent historiography has challenged this dichotomy. "Northern Struggles: New Paradigms in Civil Rights" will bring together scholars who are redefining the Civil Rights movement from a northern perspective. Their work is helping shape a new Civil Rights paradigm that incorporates the grassroots activism of women and men in Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago as well as Montgomery, Birmingham, and Atlanta.
The conference will be held at the University of Rochester. It begins on Thursday, September 23 with a screening of "July '64," a documentary film commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1964 Rochester riot. Thomas Sugrue will give the keynote address at 8PM that evening on his new work, "Sweet Land of Liberty: The Unfinished Struggle for Racial Equality in the North." On Friday, September 24 papers by Beth Tompkins Bates, Steven Ward, Ula Taylor, Robert Self, Martha Biondi and Victoria Wolcott will be presented. The conference will conclude with a roundtable.
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