The MISSISSIPPI
Civil Rights & Delta Blues
BOOKSTORE
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The MISSISSIPPI Civil Rights & Delta Blues BOOKSTORE |
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Top selections
“When nobody else is moving and the students are moving,
they are the leadership for everybody.”
Ed King , Civil Rights Movement 1963
Mississippi's Civil Rights history is rich. It is here you will read of Rev. George Lee, Herbert Lee, James Meredith, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bertha Carter, Aaron Henry, Emmett Till, and so many others who gave their brave efforts and too often their lives.
The stories are wonderful to discover and must be shared over and over. I've selected some that appear here, and of course you may want to search for even more. Susan
Quite a few works are listed below with links to Amazon. You're also invited to do
a search here. Simply write in the keyword(s) and select Go. For instance,
write in Emmett Till and click on Go.
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One of my favorite's, "Coming of Age in Mississippi." This finely written book has become a classic on growing up poor and black in this region Moody's account of life before the Civil Rights Movement has been described "as moving as The Color Purple and and as important as "And Let Us Now Praise Famous Men." Sen. Edward Kennedy has written of this work, "A history of our time .. (and) a reminder that we cannot now relax". sk
Editorial Reviews
"American Congo"
This is the story of how rural
black people struggled against the oppressive sharecropping system during the first half of the twentieth century.
Here, white planters forged a world of terror and poverty for black workers, one
that resembled the horrific deprivations of the African Congo under Belgium's
King Leopold II.
If you haven't heard of the Sovereignty Commission, you will find The Miss. State Sovereignty Commission by Yasuhiro Katagiri a fascinating read. The Commission was created by an act of the state's legislature on March 29, 1956 in the wake of the May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Like other states below the Mason-Dixon Line, this state responded to Brown with legislation to shore up the walls of racial separation. The MSC compiled secret files on 250 organizations and tens of thousands of people, including civil rights workers, college students, state government officials and others. Citizens were paid 100 to 150 dollars for information. Black and white snitches infiltrated and sowed division within the civil rights movement. The agency spied on people, played dirty tricks on them and tried to do anything it could to disrupt the civil rights movement. The agency also shared information with the Ku Klux Klan, placing the lives of many in jeopardy. After years of legal battle, some files were opened to the public in 1998 and others in 2002. It is believed that many files were also destroyed. sk
Local People, A Case of Black and White, For Us the Living, Aaron Henry, God's Long Summer
Born in the age of segregation the son of a sharecropper, Aaron Henry became state president of the NAACP in 1959. He was able, more than any previous leader, to unite blacks, despite diversities of age, ideology, and class, in confronting white supremacy. He spearheaded the formation of the Miss. Freedom Democratic Party and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). Some activists criticized him for urging protesters to take the middle ground between the NAACP's conservative position and SNCC's militant activism. Facing recurring death threats, thirty-three jailings, and Klan bombings of his home and drugstore, Henry remained stalwart and courageous. The Fire Ever Burning is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it. sk
Celebrating 40 Years of Civil Rights in 2004.
More favorites - Silver Rights about the Carter family and how they integrated the Drew schools; The Band Played Dixie about James Meredith, Cleve McDowell and others who helped open up Ole Miss; and the biography of Hodding Carter, a respected Southern journalist from Greenville.
Brother to a Dragonfly, Dixie's Dirty Secret, The Band Played Dixie, Silver Rights
The Lynching of Emmett Till, by Christopher Metress, Associate Professor of English (author of The Critical Response to Dashiell Hammett).
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With a collection of more than one hundred documents spanning almost half a century, Christopher Metress retells Till’s story in a unique and daring way. Juxtaposing news accounts and investigative journalism with memoirs, poetry, and fiction, this documentary narrative not only includes material by such prominent figures as Hodding Carter, Chester Himes, Eleanor Roosevelt, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Eldridge Cleaver, Bob Dylan, John Edgar Wideman, Lewis Nordan, and Michael Eric Dyson, but it also contains several previously unpublished works--among them a newly discovered Langston Hughes poem--and a generous selection of hard-to-find documents never before collected.
Exploring the means by which historical events become part of the collective social memory, The Lynching of Emmett Till is both an anthology that tells an important story and a narrative about how we come to terms with key moments in history |
Freedom Summer, Hodding Carter, Beaches, Blood, and Ballots; Justice in Jackson
Interviews with Civil Rights Workers, The Summer That Didn't End, Death of Innocence, Emmett Till
Mamie Till-Mobley was the mother of Emmett Till. She died in 2003 just as she completed this memoir, and has honored us with her full testimony: “I focused on my son while I considered this book. . . . The result is in your hands. . . . I am experienced, but not cynical. . . . I am hopeful that we all can be better than we are. I’ve been brokenhearted, but I still maintain an oversized capacity for love.” Death of Innocence is an essential document in the annals of American civil rights history, and a painful yet beautiful account of a mother’s ability to transform tragedy into boundless courage and hope.
This Little Light of Mine, Fannie Lou Hamer - Fight for the Right, The Pursuit of a Dream, Down on Parchman Farm
Fannie Lou Hamer was from the small town
of Ruleville, Miss. She gave the Movement a face with
her charm, wit, bravery and wisdom. Fighting for the Right
is a biography
of this civil rights activist who devoted her life to
helping blacks register to vote and gain a national
political voice.
To learn more about any of these selections, just click on the title or button. You're not committed to make a purchase until you give specific commands to do so. So relax and take a look - it's free.
Worse Than Slavery, Within the Game
... Africa
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