This collective biography of James and Esther Cooper Jackson argues that, in the face of major political transformations, activists responded to new political contexts and drew on their own personal needs, demands, and relationships to craft their contributions to the black freedom movement. A black Communist couple, Esther and Jack navigated through difficult circumstances, including the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, and continued to influence the trajectory of black freedom in the twentieth-century United States. But their approaches changed as politics shifted, as their ... More

This collective biography of James and Esther Cooper Jackson argues that, in the face of major political transformations, activists responded to new political contexts and drew on their own personal needs, demands, and relationships to craft their contributions to the black freedom movement. A black Communist couple, Esther and Jack navigated through difficult circumstances, including the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, and continued to influence the trajectory of black freedom in the twentieth-century United States. But their approaches changed as politics shifted, as their family grew, and as their relationship evolved. By following one couple over the course of a sixty-five-year, gender-egalitarian marriage, this work offers a new look at the history of social movements as it illustrates how individuals and families responded to change and revised their ideas about participation in movements as they matured. As activists during the Popular Front, McCarthy, civil rights, and post–civil rights years, Esther and Jack held on to their core ideals while adapting to the dominant trends. Their lives also illuminate the relationship between mainstream civil rights organizations and the Left by illustrating that the political spectrum in the black freedom movement was consistently more fluid, complex, and informed by earlier activist trends than the traditional narrative suggests.