NewSouth Books author Rod Davis busy protesting and celebrating, all in the name of literature
NewSouth Books author Rod Davis (East of Texas, West of Hell among others) responded this autumn to radical right-wing attacks from the Texas governor and members of the state legislature on books in schools that could cause student “distress.” Davis asked the Texas House of Representatives General Investigating Committee that one of his works join […]
CNN’s Don Lemon, Dr. Bernice King, and others reflect on legacy of civil rights icon C.T. Vivian upon publication of his memoir, It’s in the Action
C.T. Vivian, who died on the same day as his close friend John Lewis roughly one year ago, was celebrated this month in a program featuring some notable guests: Don Lemon, CNN host; Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.; Andrew Young, civil rights leader and former US ambassador; Al Vivian, son of C.T.; […]
Last week marks 70th anniversary of school walkout in Prince Edward County, Virginia, as featured in The Road to Healing
Seventy years ago, sixteen-year-old Barbara Johns led a walk-out at R. R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, in protest of Jim Crow segregation, specifically the so-called separate-but-equal education policies which had been the law in the South since Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. The school Johns attended indeed was separate, but it was in […]
New Ben Raines release joins books by Brockovich, Thunberg on Booklist list of vital environmental publications
Envirojournalist Ben Raines has been passionate about the natural world for his entire life, a good bit of which has been spent quietly exploring the Mobile-Tensaw Delta by boat. His new book, Saving America’s Amazon: The Threat to Our Nation‘s Most Biodiverse River System, is the ultimate expression of that mission, as is evidenced in […]
So that every schoolchild in Alabama is familiar with the story of Benjamin Turner, a word about The Slave Who Went to Congress GoFundMe campaign
Benjamin Sterling Turner was enslaved in Alabama. Despite obstacles and hardship, Turner would overcome the odds and teach himself to read as a child. That literacy paved the way for Turner to become a successful businessman during the Civil War and the first African American representative in Congress for Alabama during Reconstruction. His story, one […]
Author, filmmaker, and educator Ibrahim Fawal passes away
Ibrahim Fawal (1933 to 2020), Abe to his friends, was a writer, filmmaker, educator, and one of the most remarkable of NewSouth’s authors. Born in Ramallah, Palestine, he came to the U.S. to attend film school, after which he was the Jordanian assistant director for Lawrence of Arabia. His brother’s sudden death in Birmingham brought […]
NewSouth author, pastor Alan Cross, reckons with Christian response to racism and coronavirus in national media
Call it tough love. Alan Cross, a Southern Baptist pastor and NewSouth author, wants to hold accountable Christians who fail to follow the teachings of the Bible in times of social change and strife. Cross had this to say when speaking with NPR recently about how Christians have responded to the killing of George Floyd: […]
Sidney Lanier’s legacy in question with school renaming
The controversy surrounding schools bearing Confederate names brings into question how figures like Sidney Lanier deserve to be recognized. Vanished in the Unknown Shade, a biography of Lanier, was a small local project for us at NewSouth Books, the chance to work again with the talented and irrepressible Helen Blackshear, former poet laureate of Alabama, […]
NewSouth mourns the passing of Constance Curry
We mourn the recent loss of Constance “Connie” Curry, eighty-six, a friend of NewSouth Books and a chronicler of those who made a progressive difference in the civil rights era. An activist with a long history at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other civil rights organizations, Curry was on the right side of history; […]
Frye Gaillard wins Alabama Governor’s Arts Award for Distinction in Literature
Frye Gaillard is no stranger to praise with his large body of over thirty published books on diverse aspects of Southern culture. Among many distinctions, he is the winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award, the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship, and the Clarence Cason Award. His recently published masterwork, A Hard […]