Capeci, Dominic J., Jr.

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Capeci, Dominic J., Jr.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Missouri State University, 901 S. National Ave., Springfield, MO 65897. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, professor of history, then distinguished professor of history.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Missouri History Book Award, 1999, for The Lynching of Cleo Wright.

WRITINGS:

The Harlem Riot of 1943, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1977.

Race Relations in Wartime Detroit: The Sojourner Truth Housing Controversy of 1942, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1982.

(With Martha Wilkerson) Layered Violence: The Detroit Rioters of 1943, University of Mississippi (Jackson, MI), 1991.

(Editor) Detroit and the "Good War": The World War II Letters of Mayor Edward Jeffries and Friends, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1996.

The Lynching of Cleo Wright, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1998.

Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of Southern History, Journal of American History, and Historian. Contributor to books, including Encyclopedia of Race Relations, edited by Walter Rucker and James Nathaniel Upton, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Historian Dominic J. Capeci Jr., is the author of several books focusing on African-American history and specifically race relations. In The Harlem Riot of 1943, Capeci writes about a brief but deadly race riot in Harlem in which several people were killed. The author's primary purpose, however, is not only to present a case study of the riot itself but also to reflect on the economic and social conditions that had evolved over the preceding decade and had led to the riot. The author also writes about the official police and government response to the riot and its aftermath. Tony Platt, writing in Contemporary Sociology, noted that the author provides the reader with "a clear and detailed understanding of life in Harlem between the two World Wars." Platt added: "The riot itself is also reproduced in careful detail, with vivid impressions looting, dispassionate police, militarism, and the post-modern rhetoric of local politicians." Robert V. Haynes wrote in the American Historical Review: "The Harlem Riot of 1943 is a first-rate study of a significant racial incident which contributes to a better understanding of race relations in the United States."

In his next book, the author focuses on another race riot that occurred a year prior to the Harlem riot. Race Relations in Wartime Detroit: The Sojourner Truth Housing Controversy of 1942 recounts the story of a race riot that erupted when blacks tried to move into a new housing project specifically built for them but were opposed by nearby white neighbors. The rioters did not loot or destroy property but primarily fought among themselves and the police, leading to 109 arrests, with 106 of those arrested being black. "One of the many merits of Dominic J. Capeci's excellent book is that it shows how the Sojourner Truth incident, even more than bloodier clashes, illustrated wartime patterns of race relations," wrote Richard Polenberg in the American Historical Review.

Capeci collaborated with Martha Wilkerson to write about a much larger riot in Detroit the following year in their book Layered Violence: The Detroit Rioters of 1943. This time the focus is on what would be the most destructive race riot to occur in America up to that time. Taking place over three days in June, the riot resulted in thirty-four deaths, twenty-five blacks and nine whites. Capeci and Wilkerson present their case that this riot marked a turning point in race riots in the United States because for the first time blacks vented their anger and frustrations by mostly destroying white-owned property. W. Fitzhugh Brundage, writing in the Journal of American History, noted that the authors "move beyond extant scholarship on the Detroit riot by extensively using police records and court files to sketch a nuanced portrait of the rioters." American Historical Review contributor Roberta Senechal wrote: "A major strength of this study is the identification of riot participants and its detail on riot behavior."

The Lynching of Cleo Wright recounts an incident that led to the U.S. Justice Department's first involvement in a civil rights issue. Cleo Wright, who murdered a white woman and stabbed a police officer during his capture, was taken from a hospital in Sikestown, Missouri, where he was dying from wounds, and then lynched and burned by whites in a black neighborhood. In addition to profiles of Wright, the victim, and others involved in the incident, Capeci delves into the many social aspects of the case, including racial frustration, sexual taboo, and how participants in the lynching were protected by the social beliefs of the time. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the author's "extensive research, including interviews with survivors, is evident in his intricate and engrossing perspective." Gregor A. Preston, writing in the Library Journal, called the book "a detailed, scholarly analysis." In a review in the Booklist, Vanessa Bush referred to The Lynching of Cleo Wright as "excellent for high-school students studying human rights."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 1978, Robert V. Haynes, review of The Harlem Riot of 1943, pp. 554-555; June, 1985, Richard Polenberg, review of Race Relations in Wartime Detroit: The Sojourner Truth Housing Controversy of 1942, p. 781; February, 1993, Roberta Senechal, review of Layered Violence: The Detroit Rioters of 1943, pp. 268-269.

Booklist, June 1, 1998, Vanessa Bush, review of The Lynching of Cleo Wright, p. 1681.

Contemporary Sociology, November, 1978, Tony Platt, review of The Harlem Riot of 1943, pp. 763-764.

Historian, winter, 1994, Kenneth L. Kusmer, review of Layered Violence, p. 414.

Journal of American History, June, 1978, William H. Harris, review of The Harlem Riot of 1943, pp. 229-230; September, 1992, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, review of Layered Violence, pp. 719-720.

Journal of Southern History, November, 1999, Vincent Vinikas, review of The Lynching of Cleo Wright, pp. 907-908.

Library Journal, May 1, 1998, Gregor A. Preston, review of The Lynching of Cleo Wright, p. 117.

Publishers Weekly, May 18, 1998, review of The Lynching of Cleo Wright, p. 62.

Reviews in American History, September, 1999, Gail Williams O'Brien, review of The Lynching of Cleo Wright, pp. 462-469.