In his recent book on the history of Jim Crow and how it shaped (and was itself shaped by) a typical town of the deep South (“Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White,” Harvard University Press), UNC-Chapel Hill historian Prof. William Sturkey provides numerous illuminating and, often, maddening details of the harsh realities of the racial apartheid that was conjured up and enforced by the white supremacists who dominated so much of Southern society for so long.
There are the horrific stories of the lynchings and other murders carried out by white mobs. There are the stories of African American residents who fled north when given a chance and of others who, despite the frequent terrors and indignities of Jim Crow, stayed, persevered and built lives for themselves and their families. And there are the stories of how the residents of segregated black communities came to build their own vibrant institutions — many of which ultimately helped give rise to the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century.
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