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Cover image of The Spingarn Brothers
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The Spingarn Brothers

White Privilege, Jewish Heritage, and the Struggle for Racial Equality

Katherine Reynolds Chaddock

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An absorbing account of how two Jewish brothers devoted themselves to the struggle for racial equality in the United States.

In the late nineteenth century, Joel and Arthur Spingarn grew up in New York City as brothers with very different personalities, interests, and professional goals. Joel was impetuous and high-spirited; Arthur was reasoned and studious. Yet together they would become essential leaders in the struggle for racial justice and equality, serving as presidents of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, exposing inequities, overseeing key court cases, and...

An absorbing account of how two Jewish brothers devoted themselves to the struggle for racial equality in the United States.

In the late nineteenth century, Joel and Arthur Spingarn grew up in New York City as brothers with very different personalities, interests, and professional goals. Joel was impetuous and high-spirited; Arthur was reasoned and studious. Yet together they would become essential leaders in the struggle for racial justice and equality, serving as presidents of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, exposing inequities, overseeing key court cases, and lobbying presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy.

In The Spingarn Brothers, Katherine Reynolds Chaddock sheds new light on the story of these fascinating brothers and explores how their Jewish heritage and experience as second-generation immigrants led to their fight for racial equality. Upon graduating from Columbia University, Arthur joined a top Manhattan law practice, while Joel became a professor of comparative literature. The two soon witnessed growing racial injustices in the city and joined the NAACP in 1909, its founding year. Arthur began to aim his legal practice toward issues of discrimination, while Joel founded the NAACP's New York City branch.

Drawing from personal letters, journals, and archives, Chaddock uncovers some of the motivations and influences that guided the Spingarns. Both brothers served in World War I, married, and pursued numerous interests that ranged from running for Congress to collecting rare books and manuscripts by Black authors around the world. In this dual biography, Chaddock illustrates how the Spingarn brothers' unique personalities, Jewish heritage, and family history shaped their personal and professional lives into an ongoing fight for racial justice.

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Reviews

Katherine Reynolds Chaddock's The Spingarn Brothers: White Privilege, Jewish Heritage, and the Struggle for Racial Equality is an engaging dual biography of temperamentally different siblings who found ways to build and sustain the principal civil rights organization of their times.

Well written, thoughtfully researched, excellently sourced, and well organized. The story of the Spingarn brothers is fascinating and provocative, tracing how these two wealthy men became engaged supporters and long-serving leaders in the NAACP, one of the country's most important organizations for racial justice. Chaddock also examines their early lives and their other intriguing professional and personal efforts.

Katherine Reynolds Chaddock's dual biography of the Spingarn brothers fills a significant hole in the literature on the early NAACP. Chaddock traces their important contributions to the NAACP and analyzes the complex ways in which their racial and socioeconomic privilege and Jewish heritage played a role in these contributions. A must read for anyone interested in these topics.

This engaging biography of Joel and Arthur Spingarn shows how their Jewish heritage, professional attainments, and passion for public service led to unlikely roles as founding leaders of the NAACP. Wonderfully crafted and sophisticated, Chaddock's work shows the brothers' durable imprint on the civil rights struggle and its impact on them.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
184
ISBN
9781421445519
Illustration Description
6 b&w illus.
Table of Contents

Introduction: Brothers and Brotherhood
1. Sons of Determination
2. The Columbia Stamp
3. No Simple Launch
4. Roots of Activism
5. Goodbye Columbia
6. Joining by Doing
7. New Tactics for New Abolition
8. Great

Introduction: Brothers and Brotherhood
1. Sons of Determination
2. The Columbia Stamp
3. No Simple Launch
4. Roots of Activism
5. Goodbye Columbia
6. Joining by Doing
7. New Tactics for New Abolition
8. Great War; Great Debates
9. Aftermath
10. Ongoing Challenges and Final Change
11. A New Era for Old Soldiers
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Author Bio
Katherine Reynolds Chaddock
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Katherine Reynolds Chaddock

Katherine Reynolds Chaddock is a distinguished professor emerita of education administration at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of Uncompromising Activist: Richard Greener, First Black Graduate of Harvard College and The Multi-Talented Mr. Erskine: Shaping Mass Culture Through Great Books and Fine Music.