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Carol Anderson specializes in 20th century diplomatic history,
particularly the impact of the Cold War and U.S. foreign
policy on the struggle for black equality. Anderson argues
in her book that the United States undermined the United
Nation’s human rights efforts because of this country’s
Jim Crow laws. Photo by Rob Hill
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Human
Rights Versus Civil Rights
By Jenny Jones
The American black man is the world’s most shameful
case of minority oppression … How is a black man going to
get “civil rights” before he first wins his human
rights? If the American black man will start thinking about his
human rights, and then start thinking of himself as one of the
world’s greatest people, he will see he has a case for the
United Nations.
—Malcolm
X
The struggle for obtaining human rights over
civil rights is the premise of Carol Anderson’s book Eyes
off the Prize — The United Nations and the African American
Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955. The book won Anderson,
a history professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the
2003 Gustavus Meyers Outstanding Book Award. The award commends
works that further the understanding of the complexities of bigotry
and attempts to overcome its myriad forms.
“I was blown away by this award;
it was totally unexpected,” Anderson said. “It’s
such an unbelievable honor when someone commends something you’re
so passionate about.”
Eyes off the Prize examines why the
Civil Rights Movement did not ease the problems such as housing,
health care and unemployment facing the African-American community.
Anderson presents an insightful look at how the front-line for
the fight for equality was not Alabama, but the UN
Commission on Human Rights. She discusses how the United States
undermined the United Nation’s human rights efforts because
of Jim Crow. Anderson argues that the United State’s actions
in the United Nations ultimately
meant that the Civil Rights Movement’s focus on political
and legal rights could not solve the ongoing human rights crisis
in Black America.
“The Myers Awards Panelists commended the book for its comprehensive
and balanced account,” Anderson said. “Nobody in my
book is presented as a hero. Instead, they are depicted as real
people, and real people are flawed.”
The title Eyes off the Prize originated
from Anderson’s conversation with a friend about how the
true prize for equality in the United States, despite the thrust
of the award-winning documentary Eyes on the Prize, is
human rights and not civil rights. Once African Americans were
forced to take their eyes off the prize of human rights the Civil
Rights Movement was doomed to limited progress, Anderson said.
Eyes off the Prize was published
by Cambridge University. Anderson is working on her next book
that discusses decolonization during the early Cold War.
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Last Update:
March 12, 2007
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