03291cam a2200325 i 4500 884830663 TxAuBib 20230802120000.0 221007s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780197535196 HRD 34.95 0197535194 HRD 34.95 (OCoLC)1346846957 TxAuBib rda Freedman, Samuel G. Into the bright sunshine [BOOK] : young Hubert Humphrey and the fight for civil rights / Samuel G. Freedman. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023] xv, 488 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Pivotal moments in American history Includes bibliographical references and index. "30 years ago--here" -- Beyond the meridian -- "Horse-high, hog-tight, bull-strong" -- A path out of the dust -- The silken curtain and the silver shirt -- The Jim Crow car -- Vessel and voice -- "We must set the example" -- "We are looking in the mirror" -- The coming confrontation -- Inside agitator. During one sweltering week in July 1948, the Democratic Party gathered in Philadelphia for its national convention. The most pressing and controversial issue facing the delegates was not whom to nominate for president -the incumbent, Harry Truman, was the presumptive candidate -but whether the Democrats would finally embrace the cause of civil rights and embed it in their official platform. Even under Franklin Roosevelt, the party had dodged the issue in order to keep a bloc of Southern segregationists-the so-called Dixiecrats-in the New Deal coalition. On the convention's final day, Hubert Humphrey, just 37 and the relatively obscure mayor of the midsized city of Minneapolis, ascended the podium. Defying Truman's own desire to occupy the middle ground, Humphrey urged the delegates to "get out of the shadow of state's rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights." Humphrey's speech put everything on the line, rhetorically and politically, to move the party, and the country, forward. To the surprise of many, including Humphrey himself, the delegates voted to adopt a meaningful civil-rights plank. With no choice but to run on it, Truman seized the opportunity it offered, desegregating the armed forces and in November upsetting the frontrunner Thomas Dewey, a victory due in part to an unprecedented surge of Black voters. The outcome of that week in July 1948-which marks its 75th anniversary as this book is published-shapes American politics to this day. And it was in turned shaped by Humphrey. Here is a book that celebrates one of the overlooked landmarks of civil rights history, and illuminates the early life and enduring legacy of the man who helped bring it about. Provided by publisher. 20230802. Humphrey, Hubert H (Hubert Horatio) 1911-1978. Legislators United States Biography. Civil rights United States History 20th century. Pivotal moments in American history.