Short Stories of the Civil Rights Movement

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Published by: University of Georgia Press
Release Date: November 1, 2006
Pages: 368
ISBN13: 978-0820328515

 
ed. Margaret Earley Whitt. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006.

About the Anthology

“These twenty-three stories by black and white writers give voices to the nameless, ordinary citizens without whom the civil rights movement would have failed. From bloody melees at public lunch counters to anxious musings at the family dinner table, the diverse experiences depicted in this anthology make the civil rights movement as real and immediate as the best histories and memoirs.” The writers include James Baldwin, Lerone Bennett Jr, Rosellen Brown, Alma Jean Billingslea-Brown, R.V. Cassill, Val Coleman, Henry Dumas, Junius Edwards, Anthony Grooms, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Lee Martin, Diane Oliver, Z.Z. Packer, Natalie L.M. Petesch, Mike Thelwell, James W. Thompson, John Updike, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, and Joan Williams.


Joanne's Story

“The Beginning of Violence”

The wind shot through you that day like fate or some might say like the will of God. No matter what you did, it got you. It weaseled under the buttons of your coat, pulled off your scarf. You couldn’t fight against it though you could stay indoors, but once you came out, you had to face the wind and find your way. It was the day before Valentines, and snow was falling in thick wet flakes, had been since early morning and threatened to keep on all afternoon. As I said, it was not a day to be outside, but I was.

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