Raymond Gavins

William H. Chafe

Robert Korstad

A timely new edition of the stunning, prize-winning portrait of the Jim Crow South through unique first-person accounts Praised as “viscerally powerful” (Publishers Weekly), this remarkable work of oral history captures the searing experience of the Jim Crow years through first-person interviews carefully collected by researchers at Duke University’s Behind the Veil project. Newly relevant today as Americans reckon with the legacies of slavery and strive for racial equality, Remembering Jim Crow provides vivid, compelling accounts by men and women from all walks of life, who tell how their day-to-day lives were subjected to profound and unrelenting racial oppression. “A shivering dose of reality and inspiring stories of everyday resistance” (Library Journal), Remembering Jim Crow is a testament to how Black Southerners fought back against the system, raising children, building churches and schools, running businesses, and struggling for respect in a society that denied them the most basic rights. Collectively, these narratives illuminate individual and community survival and tell a powerful story of the American past that is crucial for us to remember as we grapple with Jim Crow’s legacies in the present.

African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South

Remembering Jim Crow

William Henry Chafe

Published in association with Lyndhurst Books of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South is the "viscerally powerful... compilation of firsthand accounts of the Jim Crow era" (Publisher's Weekly). Based on interviews collected by the Behind the Veil Project at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, this remarkable book presents for the first time the most extensive oral history ever compiled of African American life under segregation. Men and women from all walks of life tell how their most ordinary activities were subjected to profound and unrelenting racial oppression. Yet Remembering Jim Crow is also a testament to how black southerners fought back against the system--raising children, building churches and schools, running businesses, and struggling for respect in a society that denied them the most basic rights. The result is a powerful story of individual and community survival. Praise for Remembering Jim Crow "A 'landmark book.'" —Publisher's Weekly, "The Year in Books" "This is not just an oral history for the South, but for us all. It is a sobering reminder of the mistakes this nation has made, a hopeful reflection on how far we have come." —Kansas City Star

African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South

Praised as “viscerally powerful” (Publishers Weekly), this remarkable work of oral history captures the searing experience of the Jim Crow years—enriched by memories of individual, family, and community triumphs and tragedies. In vivid, compelling accounts, men and women from all walks of life tell how their day-to-day lives were subjected to profound and unrelenting racial oppression. At the same time, Remembering Jim Crow is a testament to how black Southerners fought back against the system—raising children, building churches and schools, running businesses, and struggling for respect in a society that denied them the most basic rights. The result is a powerful story of individual and community survival and an important part of the American past that is crucial for us to remember. Based on interviews collected by the Behind the Veil Project at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, this landmark in African American oral history is now available in an affordable paperback edition and, for the first time, as an e-book with audio of the interviewees—in their own voices.

The peris and prospects of Southern Black leadership

This “viscerally powerful . . . compilation of firsthand accounts of the Jim Crow era” won the Lillian Smith Book Award and the Carey McWilliams Award (Publisher’s Weekly, starred review). Based on interviews collected by the Behind the Veil Oral History Project at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, this remarkable book presents for the first time the most extensive oral history ever compiled of African American life under segregation. Men and women from all walks of life tell how their most ordinary activities were subjected to profound and unrelenting racial oppression. Yet Remembering Jim Crow is also a testament to how black southerners fought back against systemic racism—building churches and schools, raising children, running businesses, and struggling for respect in a society that denied them the most basic rights. The result is a powerful story of individual and community survival.

Intended for high school and college students, teachers, adult educational groups, and general readers, this book is of value to them primarily as a learning and reference tool. It also provides a critical perspective on the actions and legacies of ordinary and elite blacks and their non-black allies.

Raymond Gavins

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