{"product_id":"earl-b-dickerson-a-voice-for-freedom-and-equality-chicago-lives-9780810123359","title":"Earl B. Dickerson: A Voice for Freedom and Equality (Chicago Lives)","description":"\u003cp\u003eRecipient of 2007 The Hyde Park Historical Society Paul Cornell Award  At fifteen  Earl Burrus Dickerson stowed away on a train in Canton  Mississippi  fleeing the racial oppression of his native South. But Chicago  the boys destination  was no haven of racial fairness and equality. His flight north was in fact the beginning of a journey that would last a lifetime--and would forever pit Dickerson against the forces of racial injustice. Earl B. Dickersons story  told here for the first time  is one of courage and character  of remarkable accomplishment in the face of terrible odds; it is also emblematic of the twentieth-century struggle for civil rights--a crucial chapter of African American history as it was lived by one uncompromising individual.  In this book  Robert J. Blakely tells how Dickerson (1891-1986) worked his way through preparatory schools and college  a segregated officers training school  and law school at the University of Chicago. The story follows Dickersons career as general counsel to the first insurance company owned and operated by African Americans; the first African American Democratic alderman elected to the Chicago City Council; a member of FDRs first Fair Employment Practices Committee; leader of the movement that broke the color barrier to membership in the Illinois Bar Association; and  perhaps most famously  the power behind Hansberry v. Lee  the U.S. Supreme Court case that marked the beginning of the end of restrictive real estate covenants--one of the most pernicious legal tools of segregation in the North. Blakely gives us a sense of the man behind the achievements  the life that defied conventions and statistics  and the world in which \"the dean of Chicagos black lawyers\" became a pioneering architect for equal opportunity in American life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45953194065973,"sku":"ByrdShop_0810123355","price":50.82,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780810123359.jpg?v=1788181325","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/earl-b-dickerson-a-voice-for-freedom-and-equality-chicago-lives-9780810123359","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}