Dothan Eagle profiles Mac Otts’s compelling new memoir on race
The Dothan Eagle recently profiled S. M. “Mac” Otts, author of Better Than Them: The Unmaking of an Alabama Racist in connection with Mr. Otts’s presentation at the Houston-Love Memorial Library. The feature recounts the story of a young man ready to assault civil rights protesters who grew to become the adoptive father of an interracial child, dedicated to improving relations between blacks and whites …
Heaven and Earth Collide author Alan Cross quoted in Washington Post; book reviewed on Bill Tammeus’s Faith Matters blog
Alan Cross, author of When Heaven and Earth Collide: Racism, Southern Evangelicals, and the Better Way of Jesus, was quoted recently in a Religion News Service article on current events in Ferguson, Missouri and New York that ran in papers across the country, most prominently in the Washington Post. He noted that “what often happens when white evangelicals try to speak into this is that we continue to think first in terms of our own position. We should consider what people in the black community are saying, what are they going through, what is their experience” …
Commemorating the End of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Today, November 13, in 1956 was Day 345 in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was also the day that the boycotters won victory in their struggle that began after the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955. The boycott began four days later, on December 5, 1955, on the morning of the day that she was to be tried in Montgomery city court on misdemeanor charges of violating the city law that said that blacks and whites had to sit in segregated sections on local buses …
William Heath featured at Hood College Realizing the Dream talk; interviewed by Frederick News-Post
William Heath, author of The Children Bob Moses Led, recently gave a talk on the novel at Hood College as part of the institution’s year-long “Realizing the Dream” celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Heath discussed Freedom Summer 1964, the subject of his book. The author was interviewed by the Frederick News-Post in connection with the event …
Inspirational author Shelley Stewart receives honors from Vulcan Park and Regions Bank
Shelley Stewart, author of the inspiring memoir Mattie C.’s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story, as told to Don Keith, will be honored with the Hero Award at the inaugural Vulcan Awards presented by the Vulcan Park and Musuem at a ceremony on Oct. 2, in recognition of his many contributions to the civil rights movement …
PBS debuts new American Experience documentary, Freedom Summer
“I don’t think people understand how violent Mississippi was.” PBS’s new documentary, Freedom Summer, which debuted June 24, begins with this foreboding statement that proves itself true by the end of the film. Written, produced, and directed by Stanley Nelson, Freedom Summer chronicles the titular 10-weeks of 1964 during which college students from across the country traveled to Mississippi to battle the existing racism that was preventing African Americans from exercising their right to vote …
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: NewSouth authors one thread in the tapestry of his life
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is tireless in his efforts to promote peace and community in his native North Carolina and elsewhere throughout the South. So it was with great delight that we read his back-to-back blog postings about authors published by NewSouth Books, Bob Zellner and Guy and Candie Carawan, who’ve been an inspiration to him …
Eugene Bullard featured in Washington Post “Flashbacks” comic strip
The Washington Post “Flashbacks” comic strip, created by Patrick Reynolds, recently featured in a series on World War I aviation hero Eugene Bullard. Strip artist Reynolds cites a new biography published by NewSouth Books — Eugene Bullard: World’s First Black Fighter Pilot by Larry Greenly — as inspiration for his series. The strip tells the story of the boy who ran away from his home in the segregated South and made his way to Europe. Bullard’s varied career, from prize fighter in England through entertainer in France to Legionnaire and then pioneering fighter pilot, is compellingly recounted …
Child welfare advocate Denny Abbott tours with new book
Nationally recognized child welfare advocate Denny Abbott brought his story of creating positive change in the juvenile detention system to the campuses of Troy University recently in a series of lectures sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation. Abbott spoke in Troy, Montgomery, and Dothan about his work on behalf of exploited children, and signed copies of his book They Had No Voice: My Fight for Alabama’s Forgotten Children …
On MLK’s Holiday, a Few Words About the Poor
Today is the MLK holiday, although in Alabama the adoption of the holiday passed the legislature only by designating it as also being in honor of the birth of Robert E. Lee, who coincidentally shares the same birth week as King, so that white state workers taking the day off didn’t have to do so in tribute to civil rights. Setting aside that head-in-the-sand Alabama political posturing, it is MLK Day, which means it’s a good day to remember that though MLK is rightly celebrated as a leader of the movement which broke the back of legalized segregation, toward the end of his life he was mostly campaigning to end economic injustice and war …