The clearest manifestation of Idaho as a state with troubled racial politics was the 30-year reign of Richard Butler and his Aryan Nations. Butler and his ilk, despite popular movements against their hateful ideology, managed to define the state as a white supremacist haven in the media and wider popular culture. But a century and half of Idaho history demonstrates that Idaho residents have long harbored racial animus, from early Confederate settlers, to missionaries and Feds carrying out Manifest Destiny, to California miners, to the agriculture industry’s treatment of migrant workers, through the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and up to today.
The latest issue of The Blue Review, TBR 4, “Racial Discrimination in Idaho: Confronting the Myth of the Colorblind State,” guest edited by Boise State historian Jill Gill, tracks this racial, and in many cases, racist history from territorial days up to the present. Scholars and journalists from across the state weigh in with new analyses in this groundbreaking work, crying foul at the breadth of discrimination across Idaho’s history.
TBR 4 will be published Feb. 12, 2014 in the Boise Weekly and online. A public forum is scheduled for Feb. 21, 6 pm, at Boise State downtown, 301 S. Capitol Blvd., in Boise.Gill offered a preview of some of the themes in the upcoming issue at her Martin Luther King Day address at the Idaho Statehouse. A condensed version or her talk, ”Idaho and the 1964 Civil Rights bill,” appears below and the full version is available online. In the talk, Gill discusses the many ways that the “states’ rights” argument against the Civil Rights Act melded with segregationist arguments in Idaho and among Southern segregationist forces active in Idaho at the time.
“TBR 4: Racial Discrimination in Idaho: Confronting the Myth of the Colorblind State” will be published on February 12 in the Boise Weekly and online here. On Friday, February 21 at 6 p.m. at Boise State’s downtown classroom in Bodo, 301 S. Capitol Boulevard, we will host a forum on race in Idaho, moderated by TBR board member and Idaho Public Television “Dialogue” host Marcia Franklin.
In addition to Gill’s essay featuring new research on Idaho’s role in the Civil Rights Act battle, TBR 4 features writing and research from:
- Keith Anderson (Boise State) on the lack of diversity and multicultural curriculum in Idaho classrooms
- Claudia Peralta (Boise State) on the promise of bilingual education
- Bill Morlin (Spokesman-Review, retired) on Butler and the Aryan Nations
- Priscilla Wegars (University of Idaho) on the history of Chinese and Japanese immigrants in Idaho
- Errol Jones (Boise State) on discrimination against Hispanic immigrants to Idaho
- And Gregory E. Smoak (University of Utah) and Laura Woodworth-Ney (Idaho State University) on early interactions between Idaho’s native peoples and the state
Please look for the TBR 4 supplement in the Boise Weekly on Feb. 12 and join us to discuss the articles on Feb. 21!
The post TBR No. 4: Racial Discrimination in Idaho appeared first on The Blue Review.
