NewSouth Books

Hugo Black of Alabama; how his roots and early career shaped the great champion of the Constitution.

Suitts, founding director of the Alabama Civil Liberties Union, explains how Black (1866-1971), transformed over many years from a Southern racist populist into the US Supreme Court Justice instrumental in the 1954 decision outlawing public school segregation. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

A white preacher's message on race and reconciliation; based on his experiences beginning with the Montgomery bus boycott.

When Graetz was sent by his superiors to Montgomery, Alabama to be the pastor of an all-black Lutheran congregation, he and his family went straight to the heart of the African-American community and stayed there, nearly to the cost of their lives. As their friend Rosa Parks was arrested, the boycott began, and the violence worsened he and his family were fire-bombed and threatened. It was during those times that he grew in his faith so he could write these stirring chapters on white privilege, black forgiveness, and present-day challenges faced by the church and the community. Committed to faith, community and nonviolence, Graetz's work is a reminder that what happened in Montgomery to ordinary people behaving in an extraordinary way mattered. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)