(p. 52-54) (p. 216)
Tuskegee voting patterns among blacks and white are also significant and thematic in the work because the desire of white voters to withhold these rights stemmed from the fact that blacks held a high majority in the community and therefore could realistically turn any election they wished to with collective effort. This reality was realized early in Tuskegee, as compared to other places, in the 1970s when 80% of elected officials were black, corresponding to an above 80% black population. (p. 202) Yet, this ending is a culminated theme as many years of poll taxes, poll tests and overt disregard for the black vote often compiled with local violence against blacks wishing to and attempting to vote peppers the work. (p.20)
The work stresses individual identities and influences over change and resistance to it. One particular character, though the work stops short of deifying him which is common in civil rights histories is Booker T. Washington. "Ever since Booker Washington's arrival in 1881, blacks had been reacquiring power in small, almost imperceptible increments." (p. 30) the realistic assessment of the man, his college and the influence it had in the hearts and minds of Tuskegee residents is realistic and demonstrative of the special place that Tuskegee has in the south and in the civil rights movement.
The work also has a significant message regarding how religion and church fellowship among blacks in many ways turned the tie of the civil...
"The church [Butler Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church] was a symbol of independence for Macon County Blacks...Founded in the early days of Reconstruction by the Reverend John Butler and other freedmen, the church represented one of the first attempts by Macon County blacks to create institutions free of white control." (p. 93) the church and the independence it engendered served as a meeting place for later civil rights and local issues regarding race and organization of change and serves in many ways as an example of the importance of such institutions in the civil rights movement all over the U.S. But particularly the south.
Overall this work serves as a significant retiling and personification of individual and institutional change that was necessary for the occurrence of civil rights progress. The fact that it so closely analyses a "hot bed" of civil right change and progress, in Tuskegee is an essential aspect of how the movement itself began, developed and progresses even today. The work is a good timeline of change and resistance to it, as well as a significant work of historical value, worth reading by historians of any aspect of American history.
References
Norrell, R.L. (1998) Reaping the Whirl Wind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee. New York:…
