Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South

Fosl, Catherine

ISBN 10: 150470911X ISBN 13: 9781504709118

Publisher: Blackstone Pub, 2016

Synopsis

Anne McCarty Braden (1924-2006) rejected her segregationist, privileged past to become one of the civil rights movement's staunchest white allies.In 1954 she was charged with sedition by McCarthyist politicians who played on fears of communism to preserve southern segregation. Though Braden remained controversial―even within the civil rights movement―in 1963 she became one of only five white southerners whose contributions to the movement were commended by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in his famed "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Braden's activism ultimately spanned nearly six decades, making her one of the most enduring white voices against racism in modern US history.Subversive Southerner is more than a riveting biography of an extraordinary southern white woman; it is also a social history of how racism, sexism, and anticommunism intertwined in the twentieth-century South as ripples from the Cold War divided the emerging civil rights movement.

About this title

Review:

'Fosl's account of anti-Communism is sure-footed and matter-of-fact...' - The New York Times Book Review

'Fosl conveys the bravery and uncompromising convictions that made Anne Braden an important figure...' - Library Journal

'Now, Fosl...gives Braden the recognition she rightly deserves. Recommended.' - P.D. Travis, Choice

'Subversive Southerner is an excellent and inspiring read.' - Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, The Progressive

'...excellent biographies based on extensive research...' - Jo Freeman, Women's Review of Books

'When the civil rights struggle engulfed the South, Anne Braden was one of the courageous few who crossed the color line to fight for racial justice. Her history is a proud and fascinating one ... Please read this book.' - Reverend Jesse L Jackson, Sr

'Anne Braden's life as a social activist spans more than half a century, and her story is as instructive as it is inspirational. The old cliché certainly applies here: I could not put this book down, and did not want it to end.' - John Dittmer, Crandall Professor of History, DePaul University and author of Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi

'This book will join a critical debate on the impact of the cold war on the civil rights movement.... As important, it will take its place among the very best of the feminist biographies that have changed the way women imagine—and live—their lives.' - Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Spruill Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

'...Catherine Fosl lays out the searing costs, public and private, to...Anne Braden's family...' - Anniston Star

'...a compelling picture of a person committed to the cause of racial justice.' - David L. Hudson Jr., Nashville Tennessean

About the Author:

CATHERINE FOSL teaches women's studies at the University of Louisville, and is the author of Women for all Seasons: The story of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom .

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Pub
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 150470911X
• ISBN 13: 9781504709118
• Binding: Audio CD