Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle

By Laurie B. Green

Book Review by Jamila Appleby

April 2010

2008 Philip Taft Labor History Prize recipient, Laurie B. Green, produced a compelling historical document that traces the origin of struggle in the everyday lives of Blacks in the south, specifically the Yazoo- Mississippi Delta region area in regards to race, class, gender, power, and the work force. Comparative Race Studies as well as Working Class History informs Green’s book, Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle. Green‘s work offers a chronological account of the social structure of the labor movement during the civil rights era.

Green proposes that the ‘struggle’ represents the movements, actions, and cries of numerous African Americans in an effort to remove the dehumanizing lasting effects of plantation life. Much of the movement involved migration, while being stagnant and firm delivered a clear message of resistance, situating the notion of “fight or flight” in a different context. The struggle was a slow, painful process that continues today. According to Green, “The understandings of freedom are far from merely academic matter...” These understandings remain relevant as to consider the problems of race from post civil rights to the 21^st century.

In this book, Green emphasizes the notion of the plantation in a symbolic form as the plantation represents ‘unfreedom’ of Blacks. Further, Green, explores the concept of “genuine freedom”, a new kind of freedom that breaks dismantles the framework of oppression without fear of becoming enslaved of “returned to the plantation mind, body, or spirit. This idea of “genuine freedom”, a lofty endeavor, however, Green’s work implies that hope is on the horizon.

Green’s book is collection of 60 personal, oral narratives, photographs, and an abundance of articles. Green’s use of primary sources is one of the book’s major strengths. Green gave voice to the people who lived through the times, the riveting stories told brought to life what was once was. Further, I believe that much of Green’s work was a venue to create new language for the people to define what they were experiencing. To capitalize on the symbolic aspect, much can be revealed in the accounts from the people.

Green introduces, Sally Turner, a retired labor worker and mother of twelve. Turner reflects upon on one of her experiences at the Automobile Accessories Plant in Memphis during the 1960’s. The workers suffered from sub standard working conditions such as long hours, extreme heat, and lack of drinking water. Turner expresses her desire for water to her boss, he answered her request but offering the workers a dipper and bucket of water. “The struggle was we didn’t have a water fountain!” “No water fountain in 1965!” For Turner, the “dipper and bucket” was reminiscent of the plantation. This is just one example of the efforts of Whites to perpetuate in the city the plantation relations of Southern rural history. Green proposes the question, “Are the relations of the sharecropper and slave in the past?”

The “crump machine” coined after Boss Edward Hull Crump, is another of many symbols of oppression as it represents control and maintaining order of the political and labor in society as a means of retaining white supremacy.

It is evident that Green has done an extensive amount of research. Green’s research highlights a 30 year period that was a crucial time period in the lives of Blacks and Black Memphians. Green’s sources spanned from newspaper articles, archival sources, vibrant photos, records, meeting notes, court cases, interviews, periodicals, microfilm, and numerous scholarly books and journals.

I think Green’s abundant sources solidify her work and serve as additional evidence of how life was. There were several photos in the book that capture the essence and spirit of time. Green shows the people having good times such people getting an opportunity to vote, others singing in church choirs, and individuals dancing at night clubs and juke joints temporarily escaping the clutches of oppression. Also, there are depictions of the protests and strikes.

Though Green asserts that it was not her intention to write a chronology of historical events of the Black Memphian experience, it does read as such. Because of this, I find the book to be a useful document for those who have interest in historical works. The book is loaded with foot notes and references and is very well organized. I think this book would be of interest to a not only historians but educators, researchers, oral narrators and those especially interested in race, politics, identity, and social justice.

Laurie B. Green is currently an Associate Professor of History in University of Texas at Austin. In addition to Comparative Race Studies and Working-Class History; Green’s research interests include African American Studies; Gender Studies; Migration; Urban History; Poverty and Public Health; Social Movements; Political and Cultural History. Her interests are reflected throughout in this book, Battling the Plantation Mentality, and structured the theoretical framework of this text. Other works that cover similar themes to explore; Michael K. Honey wrote Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike: Martin Luther King's Last Campaign. Sarah L. Wilkerson Freeman wrote, Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times. Hasan Kwame Jeffries wrote Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt. John Dittmer wrote Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Blacks in the New World) Roger Biles wrote Memphis: In the Great Depression Sweet Land of Liberty and Thomas J. Surgrue wrote The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North.

I would consider Green’s book to be a scholarly document, however it is an easy read full of interesting information. This book’s theme of freedom and struggle and the definitions of these in relation to the plantation mentality topics permeate throughout the text. Green succeeds in her portrayal of Memphis as a catalyst for change and a major social movement during a monumental time period.

I would definitely recommend this book to others. The book’s title immediately drew me in. The mentality of a society is a topic that has consistently seeped into numerous conversations with many of my friends and colleagues and will always be a relevant topic. This book provided me with new incite on the subject of race and mentality. Further, this work validated some of my own perceptions on the subject of mentality as it regards to African Americans. Green’s work has the potential to become a source of information that would open new, courageous conversations about race, class, gender, identity, and power from the post civil rights time and how it looks in modern society.