Fighting the devil in Dixie : how civil rights activists took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama / Wayne Greenhaw.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Shortly after the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Ku Klux Klan--determined to keep segregation as the way of life in Alabama--staged a resurgence, and the strong-armed leadership of governor George C. Wallace, who defied the new civil rights laws, empowered the Klan's most violent members. As Wallace's power grew, however, blacks began fighting back in the courthouses and schoolhouses, as did young southern lawyers like Charles "Chuck" Morgan, who became the ACLU's southern direct∨ Morris Dees, who cofounded the Southern Poverty Law Center; and Bill Baxley, Alabama attorney general, who successfully prosecuted the bomber of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and legally halted some of Wallace's agencies designed to slow down integration.

 

Fighting the Devil in Dixie is the first book to tell this story in full, from the Klan's kidnappings, bombings, and murders of the 1950s to Wallace running for his fourth term as governor in the early 1980s, asking forgiveness and winning with the black vote.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Author's Note (p. ix)
• Preface: Death on the Highway: A Recollection (p. xi)
• 1 Willie's First Day (p. 3)
• 2 The Legacy of Willie Edwards (p. 19)
• 3 Klan on Trial (p. 31)
• 4 Hound-Dog Determined (p. 47)
• 5 "Fight Everything Segregated" (p. 55)
• 6 The Making of a Segregationist (p. 71)
• 7 The Pair from Howard (p. 83)
• 8 "Segregation Forever!" (p. 97)
• 9 Education of a Liberal (p. 111)
• 10 Country-Boy Lawyer (p. 137)
• 11 The Alabama Story (p. 153)
• 12 Requiem for Jimmie Lee Jackson (p. 161)
• 13 Don Quixote of the South (p. 181)
• 14 The Southern Courier (p. 195)
• 15 The Rise of John Hulett (p. 209)
• 16 Southern Poverty Law Center (p. 219)
• 17 The People's Attorney Genral (p. 239)
• 18 Breaking the Klan (p. 263)
• 19 "Forgive Me, for I Have Sinned" (p. 271)
• 20 "Like a Mighty Stream" (p. 279)
• Acknowledgments (p. 281)
• Sources (p. 283)
• Bibliography (p. 291)
• Index (p. 301)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Veteran Alabama journalist and prolific author Greenhaw takes readers on a journey behind the scenes of the civil rights struggle in Alabama. Tapping into his personal experiences growing up in segregated south Alabama and his connections to those on both sides of the struggle, he weaves the story of individuals, both black and white, who worked at the local level to banish segregation from their home state. He includes Morris Dees, cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center; civil rights attorney Charles Morgan Jr.; and Bill Baxley, who as Alabama's attorney general in the 1970s prosecuted Klansman Robert Chambliss for his part in the Birmingham church bombing. Against the backdrop of national events are the personal stories-Greenhaw writes of watching in disgust as his cousins marched in a KKK demonstration; he left his church over the congregation's treatment of black guests and its firing of the minister for inviting them. VERDICT While Greenhaw's work is a scholarly account based on interviews, court records, and newspaper articles, his journalistic style adds read-ability and poignancy. Overall this is highly recommended; an important addition to the civil rights record.-Lisa A. Ennis, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Journalist Greenhaw grew up in Alabama and had relatives and family friends deeply ensconced in the Ku Klux Klan. As an individual and later a reporter covering the civil rights movement for the Alabama Journal and the Montgomery Advertiser, Greenhaw made close contact with the heroic and villainous elements of the civil rights era. He chronicles the famous and the lesser-known, the activists and the people on the sidelines, black and white, who were compelled to make difficult choices to challenge or comply with heinous social customs. He follows the case of a black truck driver killed by the Klan in 1957, against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement. Drawing on news archives, interviews, and personal accounts, he recalls the individuals who resisted and those who exploited racism, among them George Wallace. Greenhaw recalls Wallace's wily use of racism to promote his political career and rise to governor and his later conversion to civil rights advocate. Photographs enhance this record of the complex history of race and politics in the South.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

An eyewitness record of the early brave incursions into the entrenched white racism in the Deep South.A native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., whose cousins could be seen marching in the local Ku Klux Klan parades in the 1950s, former Alabama Journal and Montgomery Adviser journalist Greenhaw (A Generous Life: W. James Samford, Jr., 2009, etc.) made a stand when he was 16 years old against bigotry in his own church and family. From 1965 to 1976, he covered politics and civil rights for theJournal, during the period when the Klan had galvanized violently after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Gov. George Wallace crusaded across the country with chants of "Segregation Forever!" and Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. The author moves more or less chronologically, beginning with the fallout from Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and the "Not Guilty" verdict delivered on two Klansmen accused of the bombing of Montgomery's First Baptist Church in 1957, and concluding with Wallace's seeking forgiveness from the congregation of King's former church in 1982. Greenhaw navigates through the explosive events that spurred a sea change in race relations, encompassing both the villainse.g., Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss, who supplied the explosives responsible for many of the bombings, including the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963and the numerous heroes, such as the sole early black lawyers in Selma, J.L. Chestnut Jr. and Orzell Billingsley; attorney Charles Morgan in Birmingham; the intrepid Freedom Fighters, demonstrators and student writers for theSouthern Courier; and Morris "Bubba" Dees Jr., who moved from representing racists to ardent civil-rights lawyer and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The author skillfully weaves a rich historical tapestry from his deeply engaged, firsthand observations.Impressively captures stark, stunning history in the making.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.