Explores Jackie Robinson's compelling and complicated legacy Before the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie Robinson walked onto the diamond on April 15, 1947, as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making history as the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball in the twentieth century. Today a national icon, Robinson was a complicated man who navigated an even more complicated world that both celebrated and despised him. Many are familiar with Robinson as a baseball hero. Few, however, know of the inner turmoil that came with his historic status. Featuring piercing essays from a range of distinguished sportswriters, cultural critics, and scholars, this book explores Robinson's perspectives and legacies on civil rights, sports, faith, youth, and nonviolence, while providing rare glimpses into the struggles and strength of one of the nation's most athletically gifted and politically significant citizens. Featuring a foreword by celebrated directors and producers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, this volume recasts Jackie Robinson's legacy and establishes how he set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from Black Lives Matter to Colin Kaepernick.

The twenty-first century began with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Much has been written and debated on the relationship between faith and violence, with acts of terror at the forefront. However, the twentieth century also gave rise to many successful nonviolent protest movements. Nonviolence in the World's Religions introduces the reader to the complex relationship between religion and nonviolence. Each of the essays delves into the contemporary and historical expressions of the world's major religious traditions in relation to nonviolence. Contributors explore the literary and theological foundations of a tradition's justification of nonviolence; the ways that nonviolence has come to expression in its beliefs, symbols, rituals, and other practices; and the evidence of nonviolence in its historic and present responses to conflict and warfare. The meanings of both religion and nonviolence are explored through engagement with nonviolence in Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Sikh, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Jain, and Pacific Island religious traditions. This is the ideal introduction to the relationship between religion and violence for undergraduate students, as well as for those in related fields, such as religious studies, peace and conflict studies, area studies, sociology, political science, and history.

The twenty-first century began with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Much has been written and debated on the relationship between faith and violence, with acts of terror at the forefront. However, the twentieth century also gave rise to many successful nonviolent protest movements. Nonviolence in the World's Religions introduces the reader to the complex relationship between religion and nonviolence. Each of the essays delves into the contemporary and historical expressions of the world's major religious traditions in relation to nonviolence. Contributors explore the literary and theological foundations of a tradition's justification of nonviolence; the ways that nonviolence has come to expression in its beliefs, symbols, rituals, and other practices; and the evidence of nonviolence in its historic and present responses to conflict and warfare. The meanings of both religion and nonviolence are explored through engagement with nonviolence in Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Sikh, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Jain, and Pacific Island religious traditions. This is the ideal introduction to the relationship between religion and violence for undergraduate students, as well as for those in related fields, such as religious studies, peace and conflict studies, area studies, sociology, political science, and history.

Martin Luther King Jr. was neither an advocate for nor an enemy of gay rights, but this has not stopped both sides of the debate from using his words in their arguments. His widow, Coretta Scot King, cited them in her campaign for gay rights, while his daughter Bernice appealed to them in her public rejection of same-sex marriage. This fascinating situation--a familial and wider conflict over the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in relation to gay rights--poses the problem that Michael G. Long addresses in this groundbreaking volume.

Acclaimed author Michael G. Long tells the story of the devastating AIDS crisis and the trailblazing activists who fought for dignity, compassion, and treatment.

Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!

This was the slogan for ACT UP―or AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power―an activist organization that emerged in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The group was loud, direct, and confrontational as it fought for access to treatment, compassionate care, and recognition for everyone with HIV and AIDS.

Tracing the history of the LGBTQ+ community from the Stonewall Riots and “gay liberation” movements to the groundbreaking protests of the 1980s and 1990s, Fight AIDS! is a gripping narrative of the AIDS epidemic for young readers, told through the lens of the activism it fostered. Focusing on the people most directly affected by the crisis and on the individuals who fought for justice, it is an intimate and humane account of one of the most devastating eras in United States history and an electrifying celebration of the power ordinary citizens have to enact meaningful change.

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Chosen a Best Children's Book of the Year by the Bank Street Center! Voted a Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews! A biography for younger readers about one of the most influential activists of our time, who was an early advocate for African Americans and for gay rights. "Bayard had an unshakable optimism, nerves of steel, and, most importantly, a faith that if the cause is just and people are organized, nothing can stand in our way."-President Barack Obama "Bayard Rustin was one of the great organizers and activists of the Civil Rights Movement. Without his skill and vision, the historic impact of the March on Washington might not have been possible. I am glad this biography will make young people aware of his life and his incredible contribution to American history.-Congressman John Lewis "'We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers,' declared Bayard Rustin in the late 1940s. A proponent of nonviolent resistance and a stalwart figure in the civil rights movement, Rustin organized a profound and peaceful milestone in American history-the 1963 March on Washington. . . . Troublemaker for Justice describes not only how Rustin orchestrated the March on Washington in two months but also how he stood up for his Quaker principles throughout his life. The three authors, Jacqueline Houtman, Walter Naegle and Michael G. Long, show the difficulties Rustin faced as a gay black man in 20th-century America, and that he shouldered them with strength, intelligence, and a quest for peace and justice."-Abby Nolan, The Washington Post "An excellent biography that belongs in every young adult library. Readers will find Rustin's story captivating; his story could encourage young people to fight for change."-Michelle Kornberger, Library Journal,*Starred Review "In today's political landscape, this volume is a lesson in the courage to live according to one's truth and the dedication it takes to create a better world."-Kirkus Reviews, *Starred Review "A long-overdue introduction to a fascinating, influential change maker."-Publishers Weekly, *Starred Review "This biography is an indispensable addition to the literature of both civil and gay rights."-Michael Cart, Booklist, *Starred review Bayard Rustin was a major figure in the Civil Rights movement. He was arrested on a bus 13 years before Rosa Parks and he participated in integrated bus rides throughout the South 14 years before the Freedom Riders. He was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., teaching him the techniques and philosophy of Gandhian nonviolent direct action. He organized the March on Washington in 1963, one of the most impactful mobilizations in American history. Despite these contributions, few Americans recognize his name, and he is absent from most history books, in large part because he was gay. This biography traces Rustin's life, from his childhood and his first arrest in high school for sitting in the "whites only" section of a theater, through a lifetime of nonviolent activism. "Authors Jacqueline Houtman, Walter Naegle, and Michael G. Long provide middle and high school students with a biography of Rustin that illustrates how the personal is political. Young readers will take away valuable lessons about identity, civics, and 20th-century history."-Rethinking Schools Teachers: Discussion Guide Available! Explanation of Common Core Instructional Standards Available! Reach out to the publisher at Stacey [@] citylights.com

Celebrates the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom While we can all recall images of Martin Luther King Jr. giving his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of a massive crowd at Lincoln Memorial, few of us remember the man who organized this watershed nonviolent protest in eight short weeks: Bayard Rustin. This was far from Rustin’s first foray into the fight for civil rights. As a world-traveling pacifist, he brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the forefront of US civil rights demonstrations, helped build the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led the fight for economic justice, and played a deeply influential role in the life of Dr. King by helping to mold him into an international symbol of nonviolent resistance. Rustin’s legacy touches many areas of contemporary life—from civil resistance to violent uprisings, democracy to socialism, and criminal justice reform to war resistance. Despite these achievements, Rustin was often relegated to the background. He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. With expansive, searching, and sometimes critical essays from a range of esteemed writers—including Rustin’s own partner, Walter Naegle—this volume draws a full picture of Bayard Rustin: a gay, pacifist, socialist political radical who changed the course of US history and set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from LGBTQ+ Pride to Black Lives Matter.

According to Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson was "a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides." According to Hank Aaron, Robinson was a leader of the Black Power movement before there was a Black Power movement. According to his wife, Rachel Robinson, he was always Jack, not Jackie - the diminutive form of his name bestowed on him in college by white sports writers. From two prominent Robinson scholars comes this electrifying biography that recovers the real person behind the legend, reanimating this famed figure's legacy for new generations, widening our focus from the sportsman to the man as a whole and deepening our appreciation for his achievements on the playing field in the process.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was not an advocate of homosexual rights, nor was he an enemy; however both sides of the debate have used his words in their arguments, including his widow, in support of gay rights, and his daughter, in rejection. This fascinating situation poses the problem that Michael G. Long seeks to address and resolve.

Explores Jackie Robinson’s compelling and complicated legacy Before the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie Robinson walked onto the diamond on April 15, 1947, as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making history as the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball in the twentieth century. Today a national icon, Robinson was a complicated man who navigated an even more complicated world that both celebrated and despised him. Many are familiar with Robinson as a baseball hero. Few, however, know of the inner turmoil that came with his historic status. Featuring piercing essays from a range of distinguished sportswriters, cultural critics, and scholars, this book explores Robinson’s perspectives and legacies on civil rights, sports, faith, youth, and nonviolence, while providing rare glimpses into the struggles and strength of one of the nation’s most athletically gifted and politically significant citizens. Featuring a foreword by celebrated directors and producers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, this volume recasts Jackie Robinson’s legacy and establishes how he set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from Black Lives Matter to Colin Kaepernick.

Perhaps no individual has had more of an effect on twentieth-century American Christianity than the renowned evangelist Billy Graham, whose work has been widely influential in arenas from the rising evangelical movement to the White House. Although Graham's influence on evangelicalism has long been recognized, Michael G. Long's "The Legacy of Billy Graham" is the first book to examine his impact on mainline Christianity and on American civil religion. With noted contributors including John B. Cobb Jr., Harvey Cox, Gary Dorrien, Karen Lebacqz, Thomas G. Long, Mark Lewis Taylor, and J. Philip Wogaman, this critical but generally appreciative volume assesses Graham's career from the perspectives of preaching and theology, social issues, and his engagement with his contemporaries and then concludes with two retrospectives on his legacy.

Jackie Robinson believed in a God who sides with the oppressed and who calls us to see one another as sisters and brothers. This faith was a powerful but quiet engine that drove and sustained him as he shattered racial barriers on and beyond the baseball diamond. Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography explores the faith that, Robinson said, carried him through the torment and abuse he suffered for integrating the major leagues and drove him to get involved in the civil rights movement. Marked by sacrifice and service, inclusiveness and hope, Robinson's faith shaped not only his character but also baseball and America itself.

The first openly transgender judge to be appointed in the United States, the first attorney to obtain corrected birth certificates for transgender people who had not undergone gender confirmation surgery, a survivor of conversion therapy, and author of a law review article that helped thousands of employers adopt supportive policies for their workers, Phyllis Frye is truly a pioneer in the fight for transgender rights.Among her many accomplishments, Frye founded the first national organization devoted to shaping transgender law-the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy, which has since created a body of work that includes the International Bill of Gender Rights-trained a cadre of future trans activists, and built the first national movement for transgender legal and political rights. Based on interviews with Frye, Phyllis Frye and the Fight for Transgender Rights covers her early life, the discrimination she faced while struggling with her identity-including being discharged from the army and fired from a subsequent job at her alma mater, Texas A&M-her transition in 1976, her many years of activism, and her current position as an associate judge for the municipal courts of Houston. This gripping account of Frye's efforts to establish and protect the constitutional rights of transgender individuals not only fills a gap in existing histories of LGBTQ+ activism but will also inform and instruct contemporary trans activists.

Contrary to popular notions, today's LGBT movement did not begin with the Stonewall riots in 1969. Long before Stonewall, there was Franklin Kameny (1925-2011), one of the most significant figures in the gay rights movement. Beginning in 1958, he encouraged gay people to embrace homosexuality as moral and healthy, publicly denounced the federal government for excluding homosexuals from federal employment, openly fought the military's ban against gay men and women, debated psychiatrists who depicted homosexuality as a mental disorder, identified test cases to advance civil liberties through the federal courts, acted as counsel to countless homosexuals suffering state-sanctioned discrimination, and organized marches for gay rights at the White House and other public institutions. In Gay Is Good, Long collects Kameny's historically rich letters, revealing some of the early stirrings of today's politically powerful LGBT movement. These letters are lively and colorful because they are in Kameny's inimitable voice-a voice that was consistently loud, echoing through such places as the Oval Office, the Pentagon, and the British Parliament, and often shrill, piercing to the federal agency heads, military generals, and media personalities who received his countless letters. This volume collects approximately 150 letters from 1958 to 1975, a critical period in Kameny's life during which he evolved from a victim of the law to a vocal opponent of the law, to the voice of the law itself. Long situates these letters in context, giving historical and biographical data about the subjects and events involved. Gay Is Good pays tribute to an advocate whose tireless efforts created a massive shift in social attitudes and practices, leading the way toward equality for the LGBT community.