Background
Tracy was born in Oakland, California in 1970. His father was a kindergarten teacher in the Richmond Unified School District. His mother worked a variety of jobs in the social work field
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book
Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times
(THE STORY OF SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND LITTLE-KNOWN ...)
THE STORY OF SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND LITTLE-KNOWN ACTIVISTS OF THE 1960s, IN A DEEPLY SOURCED NARRATIVE HISTORY The historians of the late 1960s have emphasized the work of a group of white college activists who courageously took to the streets to protest the war in Vietnam and continuing racial inequality. Poor and working-class whites have tended to be painted as spectators, reactionaries, and, even, racists. Most Americans, the story goes, just watched the political movements of the sixties go by. James Tracy and Amy Sonnie, who have been interviewing activists from the era for nearly ten years, reject this old narrative. They show that poor and working-class radicals, inspired by the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panthers, and progressive populism, started to organize significant political struggles against racism and inequality during the 1960s and 1970s. Among these groups: + JOIN Community Union brought together southern migrants, student radicals, and welfare recipients in Chicago to fight for housing, health, and welfare . . . + The Young Patriots Organization and Rising Up Angry organized self-identified hillbillies, Chicago greasers, Vietnam vets, and young feminists into a legendary “Rainbow Coalition” with Black and Puerto Rican activists . . . + In Philadelphia, the October 4th Organization united residents of industrial Kensington against big business, war, and a repressive police force . . . + In the Bronx, White Lightning occupied hospitals and built coalitions with doctors to fight for the rights of drug addicts and the poor. Exploring an untold history of the New Left, the book shows how these groups helped to redefine community organizing—and transforms the way we think about a pivotal moment in U.S. history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935554662/?tag=2022091-20
James Tracy
Edit ProfileEducation
Tracy attended anti-nuclear and environmental demonstrations as early as 1987.
Career
He is the co-author (with Amy Sonnie) of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times (Melville House Publishers 2012). His family moved shortly there after to Vallejo, California. Tracy has two younger brothers.
Tracy credits several formative events in shaping his early political outlook.
His first job was as a Paper Delivery Person for the Vallejo Independent Press, a worker-owned newspaper founded by striking newspaper workers. This introduced the idea of worker self-management to him.
In early 1989, the presence of Neo-Nazi organizers in Vallejo helped him form an anti-racist commitment. In 1992, Tracy co-founded the Eviction Defense Network (EDN) an organization which utilized Direct Action to prevent evictions.
The EDN was invited to work alongside public housing residents organizing for the right-of-return in the federal Health Opportunities for People Everywhere VI program
A Decade of Displacement in The Political Edge (City Lights Books, 2009).
Works
book
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Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times
(THE STORY OF SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND LITTLE-KNOWN ...)
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Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times
Politics
Rising Up: Poor, White and Angry in the New Left in The Hidden 1970s, Histories of Radicalism (Rutgers Press, 2010).
Membership
Subsequently, he was a member of the Coalition On Homelessness, Mission Agenda, and the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition.
