An African American and Latinx History of the United States

Author Paul Ortiz
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An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights

Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the “Global South” was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, as exalted by widely taught formulations such as “manifest destiny” and “Jacksonian democracy,” and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.

In precise detail, Ortiz traces this untold history from the Jim Crow-esque racial segregation of the Southwest, the rise and violent fall of a powerful tradition of Mexican labor organizing in the twentieth century, to May 1, 2006, International Workers’ Day, when migrant laborers—Chicana/os, Afro-Cubanos, and immigrants from nearly every continent on earth—united in resistance on the first “Day Without Immigrants.”

Incisive and timely, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a bottom-up history told from the viewpoint of African American and Latinx activists and revealing the radically different ways people of the diaspora addressed issues still plaguing the United States today.
Author’s Note

INTRODUCTION
“Killed Helping Workers to Organize”
REENVISIONING AMERICAN HISTORY

CHAPTER 1
The Haitian Revolution and the Birth of Emancipatory Internationalism, 1770s to 1920s

CHAPTER 2
The Mexican War of Independence and US History
ANTI-IMPERIALISM AS A WAY OF LIFE, 1820s TO 1850s

CHAPTER 3
“To Break the Fetters of Slaves All Over the World”
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1850s TO 1865

CHAPTER 4
Global Visions of Reconstruction
THE CUBAN SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT, 1860s TO 1880s

CHAPTER 5
Waging War on the Government of American Banks in the Global South, 1890s to 1920s

CHAPTER 6
Forgotten Workers of America
RACIAL CAPITALISM AND THE WORKING CLASS, 1890s TO 1940s

CHAPTER 7
Emancipatory Internationalism vs. the American Century, 1945 to 1960s

CHAPTER 8
El Gran Paro Estadounidense
THE REBIRTH OF THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS, 1970s TO THE PRESENT

EPILOGUE
A New Origin Narrative of American History

Acknowledgments
A Note on Sources
Notes
Index
© Deborah Hendrix
Paul Ortiz is an associate professor of history and the director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida. He is the author of Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 and coeditor of the oral history Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South. He lives in Gainesville, Florida. View titles by Paul Ortiz
Educator Guide for An African American and Latinx History of the United States

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

About

An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights

Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the “Global South” was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, as exalted by widely taught formulations such as “manifest destiny” and “Jacksonian democracy,” and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.

In precise detail, Ortiz traces this untold history from the Jim Crow-esque racial segregation of the Southwest, the rise and violent fall of a powerful tradition of Mexican labor organizing in the twentieth century, to May 1, 2006, International Workers’ Day, when migrant laborers—Chicana/os, Afro-Cubanos, and immigrants from nearly every continent on earth—united in resistance on the first “Day Without Immigrants.”

Incisive and timely, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a bottom-up history told from the viewpoint of African American and Latinx activists and revealing the radically different ways people of the diaspora addressed issues still plaguing the United States today.

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

INTRODUCTION
“Killed Helping Workers to Organize”
REENVISIONING AMERICAN HISTORY

CHAPTER 1
The Haitian Revolution and the Birth of Emancipatory Internationalism, 1770s to 1920s

CHAPTER 2
The Mexican War of Independence and US History
ANTI-IMPERIALISM AS A WAY OF LIFE, 1820s TO 1850s

CHAPTER 3
“To Break the Fetters of Slaves All Over the World”
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1850s TO 1865

CHAPTER 4
Global Visions of Reconstruction
THE CUBAN SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT, 1860s TO 1880s

CHAPTER 5
Waging War on the Government of American Banks in the Global South, 1890s to 1920s

CHAPTER 6
Forgotten Workers of America
RACIAL CAPITALISM AND THE WORKING CLASS, 1890s TO 1940s

CHAPTER 7
Emancipatory Internationalism vs. the American Century, 1945 to 1960s

CHAPTER 8
El Gran Paro Estadounidense
THE REBIRTH OF THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS, 1970s TO THE PRESENT

EPILOGUE
A New Origin Narrative of American History

Acknowledgments
A Note on Sources
Notes
Index

Author

© Deborah Hendrix
Paul Ortiz is an associate professor of history and the director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida. He is the author of Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 and coeditor of the oral history Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South. He lives in Gainesville, Florida. View titles by Paul Ortiz

Guides

Educator Guide for An African American and Latinx History of the United States

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

Books for Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month

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Five Key Terms to Understand the Shared Struggle for Black and Latinx Civil Rights: A Letter from Christian Coleman on Paul Ortiz’s New Book

The following letter was contributed by Christian Coleman, Digital Marketing Associate at Beacon Press.  We live in a time where a president makes barefaced remarks in speeches that African Americans and Latinx people are prone to violence and corruption. His statements, obviously, pay no respect to the centuries-long history of African Americans and Latinx people organizing together

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