Life and Death in the Delta: African American Narratives of Violence, Resilience, and Social Change (Palgrave Studies in Oral History)

Winner of the 2007 Oral History Association Book Award Finalist, 2008 National Council on Public History Book Award Using oral histories with African American activists and community leaders, Kim Lacy Rogers explores the civil rights movement in several Mississippi communities in the context of the region's history of white supremacy, racial oppression, and African American cultural vitality. Terrorism, black poverty, and economic exploitation led to a condition of collective trauma and social suffering for thousands of black Deltans in the twentieth century. This work reveals the impact of that oppression, and of African American traditions of community service and leadership in the lives of women and men who became activists. It also examines the disillusionment and anger that many Delta leaders feel about the changes that took place during the post-movement years. Rogers' book captures the complex realities of African American life under the oppression of racial segregation between the 1930s and 1970, through the turmoil of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and into the bittersweet era of post-movement politics at the end of the twentieth century. In Life and Death in the Delta, Rogers traces how terrorism, staggering poverty, and economic exploitation led to conditions of collective trauma and social suffering for thousands of black Deltans. Twenty-eight African American activists from Bolivar and Sunflower Counties relate the hardships of life under segregation, their hopes and achievements of the movement years, and their assessments of the gains and losses that they experienced in the 1990s. Their stories are dramatic, moving, and sometimes sad Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 9 Series Editors’ Foreword......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 ONE: Conditions of Life and Death......Page 30 TWO: Change and Movement Among the Poor......Page 54 THREE: Achieving in the Rural: Independence and Leadership in Bolivar County......Page 84 FOUR: The Wilderness of Social Change: The Movement and Head Start......Page 132 FIVE: The Limits of Political Power......Page 162 Notes......Page 194 Glossary......Page 208 Bibliography......Page 210 C......Page 220 F......Page 221 K......Page 222 P......Page 223 T......Page 224 Y......Page 225 Terrorism, black poverty, and economic exploitation produced a condition of collective trauma and social suffering for thousands of black Deltans in the Twentieth Century. Based on oral histories with African American activists and community leaders, this work reveals the impact of that oppression. Based on oral histories with African American activists and community leaders, 'Life and Death in the Delta' explores the civil rights movement in several Mississippi communities in the context of the region's history of white supremacy, racial oppression, and African American cultural vitality Conditions of life and death Changes and movement among the poor Achieving in the rural: independence and leadership in Bolivar County The wilderness of social change: the movement and Head Start The limits of political power.