Hattiesburg

Winner of the Zcalo Public Square Book Prize Benjamin L. Hooks Award Finalist An insightful, powerful, and moving book. Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice Sturkeys clear-eyed and meticulous book pulls off a delicate balancing act. While depicting the terrors of Jim Crow, he also shows how Hattiesburgs black residents, forced to forge their own communal institutions, laid the organizational groundwork for the civil rights movement. New York Times If you really want to understand Jim Crowwhat it was and how African Americans rose up to defeat ityou should start by visiting Mobile Street in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the heart of the historic black downtown. There you can still see remnants of the shops and churches where, amid the violence and humiliation of segregation, men and women gathered to build a remarkable community. Hattiesburg takes us into the heart of this divided town and deep into the lives of families on both sides of the racial divide to show how the fabric of their existence was shaped by the changing fortunes of the Jim Crow South. Sturkeys magnificent portrait reminds us that Mississippi is no anachronism. It is the dark heart of American modernity. Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk When they are at their best, historians craft powerful, compelling, often genre-changing pieces of historyWilliam Sturkey is one of those historiansA brilliant, poignant work. Charles W. McKinney, Jr., Journal of African American History