A remarkable look at a forgotten chapter in black intellectual history, and how conservative ideas can save blacks today. February 2009 Buy online Buy Kindle version |  |
Rediscovering Black Conservatism explains how conservative ideas grew out of the black experience in America, and how their strongest advocate -- Booker T. Washington -- got air-brushed out of black history during the politically charged 1960s and 1970s. With the failure of the liberal welfare state during the 1980s and the subsequent world-wide rise of free-market ideas, it’s a good time to reexamine Washington’s philosophy and its relevance to today’s social and economic problems. Author Lee Walker is chairman of the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, president of The New Coalition for Economic and Social Change, and a former executive with Sears, Roebuck & Company. Over the past 15 years Mr. Walker has delivered hundreds of lectures, been a columnist for Crain’s Chicago Business and the Chicago Defender, produced a nationally circulated newsletter, and hosted a Web site at www.newcoalition.org. Walker’s new book is a primer on black conservatism and addresses the ideas, people, and issues that have shaped the movement. The two central ideas animating the book are that conservatism is not a new phenomenon within black America, and that it is the source of powerful ideas that can finally solve some of the long-term social and economic problems facing black Americans today. The election of Barack Obama as the first black President of the United States makes the ideas and issues addressed in this book especially timely. It is also a good time to make it clear that not all blacks are liberals, and (as Mr. Walker likes to say) “that is a good thing!” |
