The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict: Intellectual Struggles between Blacks and Jews at Mid-Century

(Hardback)

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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 HillBrownsville conflict was rooted in this tension and the longstanding differences over community control of school districts and racial preferences.

Reviews

In The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict Glen Anthony Harris synthesizes and analyzes the works of the major thinkers of these groups and chronicles the nature of the relationship between them during the twentieth century. Harris scholarship is balanced and sound and his analysis intriguing. Thoroughly examining and critiquing the works of prominent twentieth century Jewish and black intellectuals, this book demonstrates how the Ocean Hill-Brownsville conflict represented a convergence of many historical issues that united and divided Jews and blacks. -- Learotha Williams, Tennessee State University
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. -- David J. Leonard, Professor of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies, Washington State University
Devoting one chapter to the Ocean Hill-Brownsville conflict that pitted African American district leaders against Jewish teachers and administrators, Harris (Univ. of North Carolina, Wilmington) intriguingly explores at greater length the intellectual and conceptual roots of that clash. He examines the ideas of Jewish and black intellectuals ranging from Franz Boas, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Kenneth Clark, and Ralph Ellison to Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, Nathan Glazer, and Norman Podhoretz. Baldwin stated bluntly in the headline of his 1967 New York Times Magazine essay that 'Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White.' The psychologist Clark proved more hopeful about black-Jewish relations, although self-identifying Jewish liberals or social democratssome later turned neoconservative, such as Podhoretzincreasingly expressed concerns by the 1960s. Podhoretz's Commentary magazine was at the heart of many of the intellectual squabbles, including those involving Ellison, who insisted that northern liberals had devolved into 'the new apologists for segregation.' Harris aptly examines the radical turn of the civil rights movement; his chapter on the New Left-Old Left clash fits less neatly. He concludes that US black and Jewish intellectuals sought different things, with the former desiring free engagement and the latter wanting an orderly existence protective of their interests. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *
Glen Anthony Harris offers a look at black-Jewish relations through the writings of public intellectuals, both black and Jewish, spanning the twentieth century....The substance of the books discussion is...the intellectual debates between black and Jewish intellectuals. * Journal of American History *

Author Bio

Glen Anthony Harris is associate professor in the Department of History at University of North Carolina Wilmington.