Remembering Jim Crow : African Americans tell about life in the segregated South /

Every academic library in the country should own this wonderful volume and the two accompanying audio CDs, a "greatest hits" collection of over 1,200 interviews of African Americans who lived in the Jim Crow South. The interviews were conducted over a period of several years in the 1990s, under the auspices of the "Behind the Veil" project. The tapes have been deposited in various libraries, and over 120 of the interviews have been transcribed. This volume compiles selected portions of some of the interviews, divided by themes such as "work," "heritage and memory," "lessons well learned," and others. The editors, prominent historians at Duke University well versed in the scholarship of the era, explain how the interviews constitute a "compelling body of evidence" that fleshes out "the incredible variety, richness, and ingenuity of black Americans' responses to one of the cruelest, least yielding social and economic systems ever created." The CDs of the recorded interviews (from the National Public Radio production) give yet more aural life to these ordinary yet remarkable individuals. Ideal for classroom use; enriching reading for all. Buy it--now. Highly recommended for all libraries. P. Harvey University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Black Americans living in the South during its virulent segregation era render powerful eyewitness accounts of the brutal and demeaning American apartheid in this sequel to the groundbreaking work Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk about Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Freedom (1998). The book and accompanying CD present interviews with black southerners vividly recalling the everyday indignities of Jim Crow practices: separate drinking fountains, backdoor entries, separate seating, and grossly inferior treatment that sought to condemn blacks to second-class citizenship. Submission was expected and demanded, but many practices were egregious reminders of slavery. Black sharecroppers recall being forced to work white plantations with no pay. But the collection also recalls efforts--large and small--to resist Jim Crow, maintain personal dignity, and build strong communities in the midst of the oppressive system. Black businesses flourished as patrons sought to avoid contact with whites. The interviews were garnered from an archive of 1,300 oral histories collected by the Behind the Veil project at Duke University. One shocking revelation for many readers is the fact that some of these appalling practices continued well into the 1970s. This powerful recollection will be avidly sought by readers interested in America's racial history. --Vernon Ford

"Old people knew things that we'll probably never know," confides one interview subject in this viscerally powerful book and compact disc compilation of firsthand accounts of the Jim Crow era. Drawing on the 1,200 interviews with African-Americans that make up the Duke University collection called Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South, this sequel to the book-and-audio compilation Remembering Slavery offers testimonies by people from 25 communities in 10 states, representing diverse economic, social and cultural lifestyles urban and rural, industrial and agricultural, Piedmont and Delta. Readers and listeners will confront "the dailiness of the terror blacks experienced at the hands of capricious whites" and of "the capacity of the black community to come to each other's aid and invent means of sustaining the collective will to survive." The editors provide lucid historical context for recollections of family, work, school and church. "[S]tories of rapes and beatings, of houses burned to the ground and land stolen, of harrowing escapes in the middle of the night" appear alongside accounts of "the extraordinary and multiple ways in which resistance to Jim Crow occurred and was nourished." Some of the stories are so extreme as to seem absurd white singers mistakenly sent to a black club conceal themselves under pancake makeup; a county's average expenditure for white students is $40.68 per student, and for black students, $5.95. This moving, deeply instructive book reveals how "African Americans developed their own life, hidden and estranged from the lives of white people." Two one-hour compact discs, 50 b&w photos. Appendixes not seen by PW. (Nov.) Forecast: The award-winning Remembering Slavery attracted countless readers and listeners, partly because public radio stations broadcast the tapes. Expect a similar reception for this volume. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This sequel to Remembering Slavery (LJ 9/1/98) is another effort to recover the history of black life in the American South, with interviews this time focusing on the era of segregation. It is a rare opportunity to read and hear the voices of black Southerners who experienced one of the most hideous periods in America's history, "a time of severe legal, economic, political, and social oppression, all reinforced by the pervasive threat of extralegal violence, especially lynching." Based on about 1200 interviews and in-depth research in 25 communities and ten different states undertaken by the Behind the Veil project at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, this remarkable book-and-CD set offers intimate views into the thoughts, activities, and anxieties of black Americans and at the same time strengthens our understanding of the Jim Crow era. Included are two one-hour CDs of the radio documentary produced by American Radio Works, a transcript of the audio program, 50 rare segregation-era photographs, biographical information, and suggestions for further reading. This superb primary source will appeal to public and academic libraries. Edward G. McCormack, Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Lib., Long Beach (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.