Speak Now Against the Day; The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [12], 704, [4] pages. Illustrations. Sources, Resources, Credits, and Notes on Structure. Annotated Bibliography. Index. John Egerton (June 14, 1935 - November 21, 2013) was an American journalist and author known for his writing on the Civil Rights Movement, Southern food, history of the South, and Southern culture. Egerton wrote or edited approximately twenty non-fiction books and one "contemporary fable". He also contributed chapters to numerous other volumes and wrote scores of articles in newspapers and magazines. Egerton was a participant and writer for many projects and conferences dealing with education, desegregation, civil rights, and the American South; particularly its food. Among his best-known books are "The Americanization of Dixie", "Generations: An American Family", "Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History", and "Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation before the Civil Rights Movement in the South". Egerton's Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He also wrote Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History and coedited Nashville: An American Self-Portrait, a look at his adopted city to in the 1960s. In June 2013, five months before his own death, Egerton spoke at the memorial service for preacher and civil rights activist Will D. Campbell. This is the astonishing, little-known story of the Southerners who, in the generation before the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery bus, challenged the validity of a white ruling class and a "separate but equal" division of the races. Published forty years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling of the Supreme Court, this compelling book is not only a rich trove of forgotten history--it also speaks profoundly to us in the context of today's continuing racial and social conflict. Derived from a Kirkus review: Egerton's examines the South in the period immediately preceding the civil rights movement. Egerton gracefully combines the narrative techniques of fiction with the richness of historical fact to examine the South in the period immediately preceding the civil rights movement. Covering the years from 1932 (the beginning of the New Deal) to 1954 (when the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education), the story unfolds chronologically, as most good history does, so the causes and effects are clear. Chronicling the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union and other groups, Egerton reminds us that conscience and opposition to racism existed in the South before Rosa Parks took her seat on the bus. Far less known than King, some of the most interesting are Will Alexander, Mary McLeod Bethune, W.J. Cash, Frank Porter Graham, James Weldon Johnson, Lucy Randolph Mason, and Ralph McGill. The author wrestles successfully with his wonderment at who and what transformed the politics and culture of the South in the space of a single generation. Those devoted to the study of Southern history will read this book avidly. Newcomers will learn a great deal from the author's inspired conceptualization.