Crusaders for Justice: A Chronicle of Protest by Agitators, Advocates and Activists in their Struggle for Civil and Human Rights in St. Paul, Minnesota 1802 through 1985

Arthur C. McWatt

9780967558189: Crusaders for Justice: A Chronicle of Protest by Agitators, Advocates and Activists in their Struggle for Civil and Human Rights in St. Paul, Minnesota 1802 through 1985

ISBN 10: 0967558182 ISBN 13: 9780967558189

Publisher: Papyus Publishing Inc., 2009

Arthur McWatt, a retired and widely respected history teacher who labored in the St. Paul public school system for more than three decades, articulates a moving and informing narrative of history that spans over a century locally and nationally. He begins with the first noted African American in Minnesota, George Bonga in the late 1700s to the newspaper publishing giants and civil rights activists Editors J.Q. Adams, The Appeal and Cecil Newman, Minneapolis Spokesman & St. Paul Recorder. He notes the great lawyers of Frederick McGhee & W. T. Francis who helped sow the seeds of the NAACP with W.E.B. Dubois. McWatt highlights the political elections and appointments of several key African American St. Paulites; and leaves us with the more current works of Nathaniel A. Khaliq of the St. Paul NAACP and community scholar-activist, Mahmoud El-Kati. McWatt exposes the social umbilical cord of Minnesota s Civil and Human Rights molding-ground to its national offspring of personalities such as Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, Carl Stokes, Hubert Humphrey, and Walter Mondale. This legacy-giving document will provide a stronger foot-hold into the sacred Protest Tradition of the African American community.

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About the Author:

Arthur Chandler McWatt was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and still resides in the city. McWatt received his early education at Drew Elementary and Mechanic Arts High School. He earned a Bachelors Degree in Education and a Masters Degree in History at the University of Minnesota. While at the U of M, McWatt became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He was selected for the Experienced Teachers Fellowship, which allowed him to conduct graduate studies at the East West Center of the University of Hawaii.
An early interest in seeing an end to discrimination led McWatt to serve in vital roles on the Catholic Inter-Racial Committee, the St. Paul Human Rights Commission and the St. Paul NAACP.
McWatt was a member of the Ramsey County Preservation Committee and served with Virginia Kunz on the Ramsey County History Editorial Board. He has written about African American s history and culture in St. Paul and has published articles in various periodicals. Small and Cohesive:
St. Paul s Resourceful African-American Community, Ramsey County History (1991)
Growing up in St. Paul Down St. Alban s Hill in a Wooden Coaster Wagon, Ramsey County History, (1996).
A Greater Victory: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in St. Paul, Minnesota History (1997).
McWatt retired from 33 years of teaching history in the St. Paul Public Schools with particular focus on African American, Native American, Mexican American, Russian and Asian experiences. His book Crusaders for Justice is the result of several years of study and research about the culture and history of St. Paul s African American population. His book seeks to spotlight some of those advocates, activists and agitators who were in the vanguard of the civil and human rights movement locally and nationally.

Review:

Crusaders for Justice is a refreshing historical and anecdotal presentation about the African American community in St. Paul, its leadership and their involvement in the struggle for civil rights, economic and educational equity, and social justice. Through the vehicle of the Black press we are able to view the contemporary issues of the day and how this community responded to challenges poised locally, regionally and nationally. Arthur McWatt presents a compelling story about profiles of courage. --David Taylor, Educational Consultant-Former Provost and Senior Vice President at Morehouse College-Author of Cap Wigington: An Architectural Legacy in Ice and Stone and African Americans in Minnesota

The fact that McWatt has put together a strenuously researched narrative on the civil rights struggle in St. Paul, with clarity, strength and grace is only a part of its meaning and value. He has authored a seminal work, unmatched thus far, that will be endlessly useful to researchers and general interest readers for years to come. It represents, among other things, foundational and archival material. Further, it fills a void for a much needed document, if you will, or reference work, which tells the understudied and heretofore somewhat incoherent story of the role of Black people in St. Paul in the struggle for democracy. --Mahmoud El-Kati, Retired Professor of History, Macalester College - Author of The Hiptionary and Politically Considered

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