Senator and the Sharecropper, The : The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer - Hardcover

Chris Myers Asch

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1595583327 ISBN 13: 9781595583321

Publisher: THE NEW PRESS, 2008

Synopsis

The story of two larger-than-life personalities from one humble corner of the Missippi Delta: the senator, James O. Eastland, a fabulously wealthy cotton planter and the sharecropper, Fannie Lou Hamer, who grew up desperately poor a few miles from Eastland's plantation. Asch charts the epic struggle for black equality in the 20th century by telling the story of the two deeply intertwined life histories of the staunch segregationist senator and his sharecropper nemesis.

About this title

Review

"This elegant book yields fresh insight into the tumultuous decades of the 1950s and 1960s and sobering reflection on why segregation, poverty, and racial inequality continue to define life for many in Mississippi and beyond."--Patricia Sulliva, Emory University

"Asch's history traces and illuminates the development of white racism and total political domination over the majority black population in Sunflower County. The last chapter was so riveting that I was reading past midnight."--Charles McLaurin, former field secretary, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

"Through vivid, accurate portraits of two Mississippians locked in deadly embrace, Chris Myers Asch shows why blacks remain on the bottom in Sunflower County, Mississippi, today. We may still blind ourselves to the ways that the social system after 1990 is still totally unfair to African Americans, but to do so, we will have to burn--or ignore--"The Senator and the Sharecropper"."--James W. Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me"

"Weaves a story around these two main characters that is all too familiar to those who understand the tragic history of racism in the South."--"The Journal of Mississippi History"
"Asch does a commendable job illuminating mid-twentieth century cotton kingdom economics."--"Publisher's Weekly"
"Asch's book is a well-researched, incredibly detailed look at the Delta and continuing challenges to social justice."--"Booklist"
"Compelling...Asch uses the stories of Hamer and Eastland to understand the Sunflower County of the present, to comprehend the economic stagnation that African American residents still face today and to make sense of the unspoken rules that continue to go

Compelling...Asch uses the stories of Hamer and Eastland to understand the Sunflower County of the present, to comprehend the economic stagnation that African American residents still face today and to make sense of the unspoken rules that continue to govern racial interactions in the twenty-first century.--Reviews in American History

Asch does a commendable job illuminating mid-twentieth century cotton kingdom economics.--Publisher's Weekly

Weaves a story around these two main characters that is all too familiar to those who understand the tragic history of racism in the South.--The Journal of Mississippi History

Synopsis

Documents the mid-twentieth-century conflict between influential segregationist, senator, and cotton farmer James O. Eastland and his sharecropper nemesis, Fannie Lou Hamer, discussing Eastland's enduring campaign to interfere with civil rights legislation on Capitol Hill and Hamer's triumphant emergence as a spiritual leader of the civil rights mo

Edition details

• Publisher: THE NEW PRESS
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1595583327
• ISBN 13: 9781595583321
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384