Freedom's ballot : African American political struggles in Chicago from abolition to the Great Migration / Margaret Garb.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction. From party to race -- History, memory, and one man's vote -- Setting agendas, demanding rights, and the black press -- Women's rights, the World's Fair, and activists on the national stage -- Challenging urban space, organizing labor -- Virtue, vice, and building the machine -- Representation and "race men" -- Epilogue. Film, history, and the birth of a black political culture.

Print version record.

In the spring of 1915, Chicagoans elected the city's first black alderman, Oscar De Priest. In a city where African Americans made up less than five percent of the voting population, and in a nation that dismissed and denied black political participation, De Priest's victory was astonishing. It did not, however, surprise the unruly group of black activists who had been working for several decades to win representation on the city council. This book presents the history of three generations of African American activists - the ministers, professionals, labour leaders, clubwomen, and entrepreneurs - who transformed twentieth-century urban politics.

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