WE REFUSE

A sharp alternative history of Black responses to white supremacy.

Jackson, a professor of Africana studies and author of Force and Freedom, fuses solid research with an urgent authorial voice, bringing a fresh perspective to the haunted history of American race relations. “This entire book consists of examples of Black people refusing lies, violence, theft, mockery, or second-class citizenship,” she writes. “It shows how our refusal denies whiteness and white supremacy their power and unearned authority.” In five thematically interlaced chapters, Jackson encourages readers “to think outside the binary of violence and nonviolence.” She argues that self-defense must be understood along the spectrum of resistance, including force, communal protection, and refuge in rituals of flight and joy. She examines the simmering of liberationist thought, exemplified by the Haitian revolution’s aftermath and the abolitionist era. “The late 1850s were precarious times,” she writes. “Black and white leaders sensed a breaking point regarding the institution of slavery in America.” The author also explores “the powerful relationship between Black women and force in the face of anti-Black violence,” unearthing startling stories of self-defense against the backdrop of horrific flashpoints—e.g., during the “Red Summer” of 1919 and the 1957 Little Rock integration crisis. By the late 1950s, writes the author, “the overall mood of Black Americans across the South was that white violence had to be met with force.” Jackson astutely examines the temptations of migration or flight, “a constant refrain or remedy in African American history” because “leaving is a form of refusal...something Black people have done in response to white supremacy for centuries.” This taut and fiery discussion focuses on historical research (with occasional repetition) and transformative figures (often little known) along with hard-won insight from Jackson’s personal experiences.

An uncompromising yet accessible rejoinder to conventional wisdom about race and violence in the U.S.