ANDREW H. MYERS. Black, White and Olive Drab: Racial Integration at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and the Civil Rights Movement. (The American South Series.) Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 2006. Pp. viii, 287. $39.95

The American South: A Very Short Introduction explores the American South, a distinctive place with a dramatic history. It is a cultural crossroads, where Western Europe met West Africa in a colonial slave society. The Civil War and civil rights movement transformed the South and remain a part of a vibrant and contested public memory. Moreover, the South's pronounced traditionalism in customs and values have always contended with the forces of modernization and the continuing challenges of racial tension. This VSI looks at Southerners' diverse creative responses to these experiences, in literature, film, music, and cuisine, which have had worldwide influence.

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Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature ◽

10.1257/jel.51.3.883.r13 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 911-912

Keyword(s):

Civil Rights ◽

Civil Rights Movement ◽

Economic History ◽

Jim Crow ◽

American South ◽

Historical Context ◽

Economic Consequences ◽

Racial Boundaries ◽

The American South ◽

William Robertson

Explores the economic gains experienced across racial boundaries in the wake of the civil rights movement of the American South. Discusses civil rights, economics, and the American South; the political economy of the Jim Crow South; southern business and public accommodations—an economic–historical paradox; desegregating southern labor markets; the economics of southern school desegregation; the economic consequences of voting rights; the downside of the civil rights revolution; and civil rights economics—historical context and lessons. Wright is William Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History at Stanford University.

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Battle Cry: the American Library Association and Its Southern Chapters during the Civil Rights Movement

10.31229/osf.io/hp2kf ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Steven R. Harris

Keyword(s):

Civil Rights ◽

Civil Rights Movement ◽

Jim Crow ◽

American South ◽

American Library Association ◽

Cultural Barriers ◽

Civil Rights Act ◽

American Library ◽

The American South

The historiography of civil rights and libraries tells us little about the desegregation of the profession. During the Civil Rights Movement librarians in the American South encountered barriers to their professional participation due to Jim Crow cultural restrictions in the region. Despite activism by a few individuals, the American Library Association was not successful in compelling state and regional affiliates of the Association to integrate their ranks. Four state associations (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgie) actually severed their ties with ALA. Only after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were the cultural barriers removed to permit the southern associations to open their membership to all librarians. Soon after the signing of that legislation, ALA readmitted those southern chapters.

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Staging Diaspora

Dancing the World Smaller ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190265311.003.0003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 120-163

Author(s):

Rebekah J. Kowal

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Civil Rights Movement ◽

American South ◽

American Identity ◽

African Dance ◽

Sierra Leonean ◽

Dance Company ◽

The American South ◽

Nigerian Students

Chapter 3 focuses on the artistic, cultural and political significance of Sierra-Leonean choreographer Asadata Dafora’s work in the mid-1940s. The first part of the chapter examines the import of three African dance festivals that Dafora directed and produced at Carnegie Hall on behalf of the African Academy of Arts and Research (AAAR), a pro-nationalist and anti-colonialist organization founded by Nigerian students living in New York City at the time. Seen in this light, Dafora’s performance of diaspora makes visible practices of black creativity and resistance, seeking to bridge Africanist solidarities toward the formation of a black American identity defined in global terms. The second part of the chapter analyzes the importance of a tour Dafora took with his dance company, Shogola Oloba African Dance Group, across the American South and Midwest, performing “Africa” for largely African American audiences on the eve of the civil rights movement.

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