Synopses & Reviews
The civil rights movement that looms over the 1950s and 1960s was the tip of an iceberg, the legal and political remnant of a broad, raucous, deeply American movement for social justice that flourished from the 1920s through the 1940s. This rich history of that early movement introduces us to a contentious mix of home-grown radicals, labor activists, newspaper editors, black workers, and intellectuals who employed every strategy imaginable to take Dixie down. In a dramatic narrative Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore deftly shows how the movement unfolded against national and global developments, gaining focus and finally arriving at a narrow but effective legal strategy for securing desegregation and political rights.
Review
"Introduces scores of dedicated, colorful and sometimes eccentric dreamers and agitators." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Painstakingly researched and vividly told, Defying Dixie is, by any standard, a formidable achievement." Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
A groundbreaking history of the Southern movement for social justice that gave birth to civil rights.
Synopsis
"Remarkable . . . an eye-opening book [on] the freedom struggle that changed the South, the nation, and the world." --
About the Author
Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore is the Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale University. A North Carolina native, she writes extensively on Southern history. She and her family live in New Haven, Connecticut.