Protest and Dissent Books Analysis

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Protest and Dissent Books Analysis

Brief Book Descriptions

Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America is a story description authored by Cameron McWhirte of a country fraught caused by a flash between hope and threat, amid the growing tension of new dreams and aspirations encountering entailed fears that arose and exploded. It is a narration of the deadliest episodes of lynching and race riots in America, contrary to the hope of black Americans for a new epoch of equality, peace, and prosperity after World War I. The effects of the active forces still reckoned in the nation a century later. During the season, close to 25 riots and mob actions surfaced across the country, killing hundreds of mostly blacks and thousands of adversely injured and pushed to flee from their native homes. There were diverse forces that sparked these events both in Chicago and the entire country a hundred years ago. 

Authored by Robert Shogan, The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising characterizes the broadest labor uprising in the United States' history and the most massive armed uprising following the American Civil War. The incident occurred in late August 1921 after union miners and other Coal Company supporters conflicted at Blair Mountain in West Virginia in what has been referred to as the broadest armed uprising after the Civil War. In the text, Shogan suggests that the riots happened in Logan County of West Virginia as a continuation of the Coal Wars- a series of early 20th-century labor fights in Appalachia. The disputes led to the mass killing of one hundred people and several others arrested, and significant declines in United Mine Workers. 

Comparison between “The Battle of Blair Mountain” and the “Red Summer”

Based on Cameron McWhirte's arguments, the main reasons and factors that led to the "Red Summer of 1919" included the developing white backlash over the victory of black military veterans during World War I. McWhirte suggests that racial tensions within the nation were exacerbated by the discharge of thousands of military personnel back to their home, causing competition for postwar America opportunities. According to McWhirte, black equality and assertions of privileges were equated to radical actions and messages. At that time, African American soldiers had operated in the war in large numbers, which was quite empowering. However, their vibrancy did not sit well with their whites counterparts, especially in the southern towns' streets. 

Additionally, African Americans had just shifted to the northern cities such as Detroit, New York, Chicago, and Cleveland during the Great Migration. They were accorded a little freedom and entitled to better compensations in terms of wages. Consequently, this guaranteed them a certain level of political power. According to McWhirte, the new space led to anxiety development among ethnic teams competing for similar jobs, which led several unions into prejudicing against accommodating black people. Additionally, there was a significant rise in the lynching of African Americans. McWhirte further indicates that sharecroppers were also a significant factor because at that time, African-Americans were growing cotton, and there was a huge demand for cotton and textile globally after the war. At the same time, towns in the southern region felt threatened by the blacks' significant moves.

On the other hand, the author of The Battle of Blair Mountain suggests that the protest resulted from several centuries of unsettled and unpleasant labor wars between diverse coal companies and miners within Southern West Virginia. According to Shogan, the Mingo, Logan, and McDowell, state coalfields had functioned under a repression corporation town system for a long time. Employees were forced to work using leased tools and were compensated with minimal company currency wages that they could only utilize at company stores. There were deplorable safety conditions. The assigned operators had sidelined the unions through violence, fights, and intimidation despite the United Mine Workers (UMW) efforts to settle the high temperatures. In the text, Shogan states that most firms compelled employees to sign a contract known as "yellow dog" that pledged not to organize and deployed private detectives to harass the striking minors and flee them from their organization-owned homesteads. There were several hostilities against the workers in these companies. 

In The Red Summer, McWhirte states that the main groups involved in the attack were the Black American Community, American servicemen, laborers, the government, and police officers. The protest brought diverse successes, failures, and long term consequences. First, the demonstration was mainly done through violent acts and riots with mobs throwing stones and bricks. According to McWhirte, hundreds of people lost their lives during the killings, race riots, and lynching of the war in 1919, while thousands of others were left severely injured and forced to flee their homesteads. However, African Americans regained their legacy and confidence to fight back in streets, courts, and voting booths. McWhirte further states that the Black populations had the power to aggressively fight back for their rights against intimidation and racial violence in typically new ways. The Negros emerged out of this bloody affair with a great sense of belonging, shared purpose, identity, and pride that has served as the basis for future civil rights movements. They have a renewed intention of fighting segregation and barrages of brutality. 

On the other hand, "The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising" protest involved significant groups; the coal companies, union and nonunion miners, militia, federal troops, and state and private police. According to Shogan, the protestors used machine guns, sounds of falling bombs, tear gas, and pipe bonds loaded with bolts and nuts for shrapnel. Planes were strategically positioned to drop homemade explosives over tow targeted miners strongholds, although their approach did not inflict any known casualty. In his text, Shogan says that the battle led to the killing of about 100 people. However, the actual number of individuals who succumbed to the attacks has never been confirmed to date. Consequently, the author insists that the war was a pivotal chapter in America's labor history and a crushing defeat for miners. Perpetrators were charged with treason while others were indicted for murder. Today, the core topic is not the rights of miners by the survival of a mountain, symbolizing workers' resistance to overwhelming opposition.

However, there are significant similarities between "The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising". In both encounters, the war times were characterized by a widespread period of great anxieties and a topsy-turvy economic position. These times also led to high inflation rates with an enormous amount of strikes and unstable business operations s different communists were agitating globally. In both experiences, the minority groups subject to discrimination and harassment came out victorious. Eventually, governments began figuring out their stand on workers' oppression and racial inequalities across all dimensions. From the analysis, both texts suggest that these riots occurred at a time characterized by oppression and discrimination against minority groups in the society and termination of any progress made by African Americans. People are motivated to protest and resist, especially when their rights and privileges are taken for granted. In reaction, they tend to defend their positions by fighting back and demanding full accommodation as part of the organization or the nation. However, it takes acts of courage and teamwork to say no to harassments and related forms of discrimination collectively.

Both protests occurred during challenging times of political and economic instabilities in America. These periods were also characterized by increased discrimination against the people of color, intensified racial frictions, high industrial labor competition, and marvelous militancy. The ruling governments of the time were not keen on preserving and maintaining democracy across all populations. Both encounters also reveal the increasing tensions of the time, especially in "The Battle of Blair Mountain" between the white groups and black people conforming to the pressures of inadequate housing, access to basic needs, and biased police people against the people of color. In "Red Summer," the author highlights diverse struggles endured by union workers who represent the minority groups and the little efforts that the government demonstrated as a form of support towards the affected groups. Generally, both periods were also marked by a new willingness on union group workers and the Black people to fight for their privileges and rights in the face of continuous oppression and injustices.