The Struggle and the Urban South

This essential work of historical scholarship examines the crucial, often overlooked decades of African American resistance to Jim Crow laws in the urban South, using Baltimore as a powerful case study. David Taft Terry meticulously documents the long civil rights struggle that unfolded from the 1890s through the 1950s, a period of profound segregationist pressure. The book positions Baltimore as a key battleground where Black communities organized and fought back against systemic oppression long before the landmark protests of the 1960s.

Terry’s research is particularly compelling for its focus on the grassroots activism and daily defiance that defined this earlier era, offering a necessary correction to the simplified timeline of the movement. Readers interested in urban history, the deep roots of civil rights organizing, and the complex social fabric of Southern cities will find this narrative both enlightening and vital. This is a foundational text that reshapes our understanding of how freedom was pursued in the shadow of Jim Crow.