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During the two decades before the modern civil rights movement began in the 1950s in the South, there were courageous men and women, black and white, and organizations working for racial justice in the region. Although the prophetic efforts of those visionaries were critical at the time, they are largely forgotten today. Noted Southern author and historian John Egerton introduces us to these opponents of segregation and their times in his magnificent, compelling social history, Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South, now available in paperback. This sensitive and revealing work has been highly acclaimed by reviewers, and, among other honors, the author has received the 1995 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for the outstanding work on social justice issues and the 1995 Ambassador Award in American Studies from the English-Speaking Union of the United States.
Egerton chronicles the efforts of social activists, educators, writers, ministers, journalists, and others who sought to change long-established patterns and customs. Among many others, we learn about Will Alexander, who established the Commission on Interracial Cooperation; James Weldon Johnson, "a renaissance man in the broadest sense of the term," who was instrumental in expanding the work of the NAACP in the South; Mary Bethune, who founded the National Council of Negro Women; and the writer Lillian Smith, author of the novel Strange Fruit and the autobiographical work Killers of the Dream.
Speak Now Against the Day (the title is from a William Faulkner speech) takes its place as a masterpiece that must be read if we are to better understand this tumultuous period of the South's history.
Roger Bishop is Contributing Editor to BookPage.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.