Although much attention has been paid to the adults who led, participated in, or witnessed the civil rights movement, much less attention has been given to those who were children during that era. Especially in the South, these children of the 1950s and afterward came of age in the midst of major societal shifts regarding race, gender, social class, and industry as the South re-branded itself the “Sun Belt.” In this collection of memoirs, writers, teachers, scholars and historians recall growing up in the South from the late 1950s to the early 1990s, revealing how the region changed over time, as well as how a Southern childhood varied across time, race, gender, socio-economic status, and geography. By viewing these remembrances through the lens of multiculturalism, this collection offers anuanced understanding of how the pre-civil rights movement South evolved into the South of the 21st century.

Foster Dickson is a writer, editor, and teacher in Montgomery, Alabama. The author of three books, he has twice received Teaching Tolerance grants from the Southern Poverty Law Center and was a co-recipient of the Lillian E. Smith Foundation’s first Writer-in-Service Residency.

Edited by Foster Dickson
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 196
Bibliographic Info: index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6048-9
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8816-2
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Preface 1

Introduction (by Foster Dickson) 5

Power, Love and a Sound Mind (by Jacqueline Wheelock) 55

Covered Walkways (by Lean’tin Bracks) 64

Black Bitch (by Jim Grimsley) 70

Conversion (by Lillie Anne Brown) 76

Growing Up Out of Place (by Becky McLaughlin) 81

Women’s Work and Working Women (by Leslie Haynsworth) 91

1975 Wasn’t a Very Good Year (by Georgene Bess Montgomery) 100

The Absence of Water (by Glenis Redmond) 109

Black Power (by Stephanie Powell Watts) 120

1987 Tenth Grade (by Camika C. Spencer) 124

Why It Matters (by Anne Estepp) 133

The Difference (by Ashley Day) 136

Hed: The Unwritten Rules (by Dawne Shand) 140

Attempts to Bury History Backfire: When Do the People Learn? (by Kyes Stevens) 145

Hiding Next Door (by Vallie Lynn Watson) 155

Elevator Music (by Ravi Howard) 161

What Is There to Say? (by Ray Morton) 164

Facing South (by Kathleen Rooney) 167

Afterword (by David Molina) 175

About the Contributors 183

Index 187

“Dickson gathers first-person essays from historians, teachers, and scholars who grew up in the South on both sides of the color line”—Reference & Research Book News.