Freedom on the Border: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky (Kentucky Remembered: An Oral History Series) - Hardcover

Fosl, Catherine; K'Meyer, Tracy E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813125499 ISBN 13: 9780813125497

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 2009

Synopsis

Most scholarship on the civil rights movement has focused on the Deep South, even though border states like Kentucky also had segregation laws and a history of racialized violence. African American Kentuckians challenged racial segregation, too, but they adapted their approaches as needed, from familiar protest models in the state's larger cities to more unique strategies in isolated rural communities, where they constituted only a tiny fraction of the population. In ""Freedom on the Border"", 103 civil rights activists recall their struggles to dismantle legal segregation in Kentucky. Their stories, introduced and contextualized by two historians, vividly describe pivotal moments such as the 1964 March on Frankfort, led by Martin Luther King Jr. In addition, they unearth less familiar episodes that challenge official narratives of the movement. This book enlarges southern civil rights movement history and suggests that the battle for black equality was not just a series of mass demonstrations and campaigns. It was the sum of countless individual acts of resistance stretching past the borders of the former Confederacy and beyond the twentieth century.

About this title

Review:

""There is much work that needs to be done when it comes to writing the history of Kentucky. Fortunately, a number of steps have been taken to correct this, and oral history projects are a key component in filling in the gaps. "Freedom on the Border" is one example of how these interviews can be used to further explore the role of Kentuckians within the context of major events within the history of the country. They are much needed, and hopefully this will be the first of many such efforts."--David A Serafini, Bowling Green Daily News" --

""The book, which shares the activists' own recollection of the struggles to dismantle legal segregation in Kentucky, is the first published study of the civil rights movement in Kentucky."--Lexington Herald-Leader" --

""These stories remind us that a social justice movement does not end when laws are passed or crowds dwindle, but continues as long as people experience inequality and act against it."--Linda Elisabeth Beattie, Courier-Journal" --

""This is an excellent way to get at what occurred...has the value of interviewing the people who actually experienced the events and who may not have a personal or political ax to grind."--Multicultural Review" --

""Freedom on the Border is well organized... linking the personal and political, as well as the past and the present."--Indiana Magazine of History" --

""This well researched and cogently written volume introduces a unique perspective of the African American freedom struggle that has received only scant attention from most scholars."--Northern Kentucky Heritage" --

""Freedom on the Border serves as a valuable introduction to the considerable oral history resources on the movement available in Kentucky."--LeeAnn G. Reynolds, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society" --

.".". The book provides compelling insight into race relations and the civil rights movement in the state."--Journal of Southern History" --

""Fosl and K'Meyer's oral history collection illuminates an amazing variety of individual and collective tactics and strategies that Kentuckians used to fight for equality."--Wesley Hogan, Virginia State University" --

""This work certainly brings us closer to understanding two seemingly paradoxical truths of the modern black freedom struggle: regional variations matter, and the Civil Rights movement unfolded differently within the South, across the Midwest, and in the North." -- Southern Quarterly" --

About the Author:

Catherine Fosl, associate professor of women's / gender studies and director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at the University of Louisville, is the author of two previous books. Tracy E. K'Meyer, associate professor of U.S. history at the University of Louisville, is the author of Interracialism and Christian Community in the Postwar South: The Story of Koinonia Farm.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0813125499
• ISBN 13: 9780813125497
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312