The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict

Intellectual Struggles between Blacks and Jews at Mid-Century

By (author) Glen Anthony Harris

Not available to order

Publication date:

18 May 2012

Length of book:

226 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739176023

The history of Black-Jewish relations from the beginning of the twentieth century shows that, while they were sometimes partners of convenience, there was also a deep suspicion of each other that broke out into frequent public exchanges. During the twentieth century, the entanglements of both groups have, at times, provided an important impetus for social justice in the United States and, at other times, have been the cause of great tension.
The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict explores this fraught relationship, which is evident in the intellectual lives of these communities. The tension was as apparent in the life and works of Marcus Garvey, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin as it was in the exchanges between blacks and Jews in intellectual periodicals and journals in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The Ocean Hill–Brownsville conflict was rooted in this tension and the longstanding differences over community control of school districts and racial preferences.

Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter 1: In the First Decades of the Twentieth Century
Chapter 2: From Franz Boas to Richard Wright
Chapter 3: The 1940s: Impeded Perceptions
Chapter 4: Liberalism and Identity in Post-War America
Chapter 5: The Commentary Factory
Chapter 6: What Once was Old is Now New
Chapter 7: The Radicalization of the Civil Rights Movement
Chapter 8: What Liberal Alliance? The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict
Conclusion
Bibliography
About the Author

Repelling a tendency to debate black/Jewish relations through personal interaction and communal contact, Glenn Anthony Harris provides a thorough discussion of the exchanges and debates between black and Jewish intellectuals throughout the 20th century. Moving beyond a linear historiography, which imagines the pre-1960s as the golden age of black/Jewish relations and the subsequent decades as one of conflict and tension, Harris’ exceptional research forces complexity and depth on this continually important subject. A story of liberalism, radicalism, and the battle to remake America, The Ocean-Hill Brownsville Conflict offers insight into the often competing and difficult dialogues between black and Jewish intellectuals elucidating how even in disagreement these debates propelled the movement for justice and equality forward.