Uncovering Black Heroes

David Boers is a Professor of Doctoral Studies in the School of Education at Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He has published eight books and dozens of articles regarding education, educational history, and disadvantaged populations. In addition, he has delivered hundreds of presentations across the nation at local, state, and national conferences, workshops, and staff development programs. Dr. Boers is passionate about engaging in critical discourse regarding social justice, the human condition, and related areas of existential thinking.

Uncovering Black Heroes: Lesser-Known Stories of Liberty and Civil Rights is a series of stories regarding real people who are not so well known in the mainstream of American freedom and civil rights discussions. These people have made a difference by the events of their lives and by the deliberate contributions they made. In some chapters depictions of fugitive slaves create awareness of the perils of freedom runs and of the desperate, dangerous, and terrifying life of being a hunted person. In other chapters the degree of local level blockage individuals needed to confront is exposed. Still other chapters point out major efforts by diligent, but for the most part unknown, local people that result in court case settlements and state laws to advance civil rights, in particular suffrage. One chapter takes a close look at leaders in women's clubs and how those leaders defined women's roles in the Black freedom and civil rights movements. Themes stand out as they all build upon each other and are seen from one chapter to the next. In the end, a subtle evolution of ideas can be realized that forms the notion that the great and recognized Black leaders in history have their important place but that freedom and civil rights advancements are made on the backs of the local unknowns who need to be recognized for what they have contributed. This uncovering of unknown players involved in crucial events of their times in the quest for social, political, civil, and personal equality and freedom provides a unique perspective somewhat counter to mainstream thinking.

Preface - Acknowledgments - Introduction: Why Are These Stories Important to Tell? - St. Louis to Detroit - Releasing Joshua Glover: Wisconsin's Response to Popular Sovereignty, States' Rights, and the Fugitive Slave Law - The Birth of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs - Uncovering Ezekiel Gillespie: African American Male Suffrage - Milwaukee Movers: James Groppi/Vel Phillips - Attorney for the Plaintiffs: Desegregating Milwaukee Public Schools - Conclusion: What Have We Learned About Uncovering Lesser-Known Heroes? - Selected Court Decisions Regarding Discrimination Based on Ethnicity - Selected Court Decisions Regarding Discrimination Based on Gender.