Mixon s examination of black militias in post-emancipation Georgia and their fight for citizenship and equality provides a powerful and compelling portrait of the social revolution process at the grassroots level. Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, author of "Freedom s Seekers: Essays on Comparative Emancipation"
Tells the story of the rise and fall of black militia units in Georgia during the post Civil War era and highlights how black militia service symbolized citizenship, political activism, social standing, and the hope for a bright future for African Americans throughout the United States. Marcus S. Cox, author of "Segregated Soldiers: Military Training at Historically Black Colleges in the Jim Crow South"
In "Show Thyself a Man," Gregory Mixon explores the ways African Americans in postbellum Georgia used the militia as a vehicle to secure full citizenship, respect, and a more stable place in society. As citizen-soldiers, black men were empowered to get involved in politics, secure their own financial independence, and publicly commemorate black freedom with celebrations such as Emancipation Day.
White Georgians, however, used the militia as a different symbol of freedom to ensure the postwar white right to rule. This book is a forty-year history of black militia service in Georgia and the determined disbandment process that whites undertook to destroy it, connecting this chapter of the post-emancipation South to the larger history of militia participation by African-descendant people through the Western hemisphere and Latin America.
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