author results for Tameez, Zaakir

Charles Sumner

Tameez, Zaakir — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

"A landmark biography of Charles Sumner, the unsung hero of the American Civil War and Reconstruction Charles Sumner is mainly known as the statesman who barely survived a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the slaveholder Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner's epic life as one of America's most visionary constitutional thinkers, a man who advocated for multiracial democracy and championed equal rights more than one hundred years before the civil rights movement. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, Sumner helped devise the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the blueprint for what eventually became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He valued principles above politics and was prepared to put his life on the line for the sake of racial justice. In Charles Sumner, Zaakir Tameez paints a vivid portrait of a civil rights crusader whose story has been overshadowed by the violent caning. With fresh research and lucid prose, Tameez chronicles Sumner's childhood upbringing--only decades after the American Revolution--in a poor white family that lived in a free Black neighborhood in Boston. He argues that Sumner was likely a gay man who struggled with love and heartbreak at a time when homosexuality wasn't well understood. And he depicts Sumner as a towering intellectual, one of the legal masterminds behind Reconstruction, and one of the founding fathers of the postwar Constitution premised on equality for all. An extraordinary achievement of historical and constitutional scholarship, Charles Sumner provides many valuable lessons for an increasingly partisan America divided, once again, over questions of race, democracy, and constitutional law"--

Charles Sumner

Tameez, Zaakir — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Charles Sumner is mainly known as the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the proslavery congressman Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner's status as the most passionate champion of equal rights and multiracial democracy of his time. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, Sumner helped the Union win the Civil War and ordain the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
In a comprehensive narrative, Zaakir Tameez presents Sumner as one of America's forgotten founding fathers, a constitutional visionary who helped to rewrite the post–Civil War Constitution and give birth to modern civil rights law. He argues that Sumner was a gay man who battled with love and heartbreak at a time when homosexuality wasn't well understood or accepted. And he explores Sumner's critical partnerships with the nation's first generation of Black lawyers and civil rights leaders.
An extraordinary achievement of historical and constitutional scholarship, Charles Sumner brings back to life one of America's most inspiring statesmen, whose formidable ideas remain relevant to a nation still divided over questions of race, democracy, and constitutional law.

Charles Sumner

Tameez, Zaakir — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

"A thorough recounting of the great legislator's life and deed... unlikely to be bettered anytime soon... Tameez is expert at explaining Sumner's legal thought... One cannot help wishing we had a Charles Sumner in Washington today."
—The New York Times
"An excellent book about the courageous Massachusetts senator... Drawing from hundreds of letters, articles and speeches, Mr. Tameez has created a remarkable portrait of a complex man who faced many personal challenges... Charles Sumner is a moving portrayal of a courageous, long-overlooked American who, in the words of one contemporary, 'stood in the vanguard of Freedom.'"
—Wall Street Journal

A landmark biography of Charles Sumner, the unsung hero of the American Civil War and Reconstruction
Charles Sumner is mainly known as the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the proslavery congressman Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner's status as the most passionate champion of equal rights and multiracial democracy of his time. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, Sumner helped the Union win the Civil War and ordain the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
In a comprehensive but fast-paced narrative, Zaakir Tameez presents Sumner as one of America's forgotten founding fathers, a constitutional visionary who helped to rewrite the post–Civil War Constitution and give birth to modern civil rights law. He argues that Sumner was a gay man who battled with love and heartbreak at a time when homosexuality wasn't well understood or accepted. And he explores Sumner's critical partnerships with the nation's first generation of Black lawyers and civil rights leaders, whose legal contributions to Reconstruction have been overlooked for far too long.
An extraordinary achievement of historical and constitutional scholarship, Charles Sumner brings back to life one of America's most inspiring statesmen, whose formidable ideas remain relevant to a nation still divided over questions of race, democracy, and constitutional law.