From Montgomery’s segregated schools to a renewed public reckoning
Growing up in Montgomery during the 1940s and 1950s, the author of a new memoir describes an upbringing steeped in the cultural and institutional arguments used to justify segregation. He recalls how public school textbooks and nearby institutions framed the Old South as a heritage to be preserved, and how family dynamics — including a father whose views were openly racist and a mother who tried to moderate those attitudes — shaped early life in Alabama’s capital.
The narrative traces a slow but decisive transformation. An early encounter with the biography of Ralph Bunche, the first Black diplomat to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950, broadened the author’s horizons. He writes that Bunche was the first Black professional he truly encountered as a young reader — a turning point that shifted his thinking about race and possibility.
“I had a ‘great awakening’ on race”
The author stayed in Montgomery-area landmarks during the era that reshaped the nation. He worked on a master’s thesis examining the Ku Klux Klan and its influence in Alabama politics while serving as Student Government Association president at Auburn University in 1963–64. On the night of March 11, 1965 — during the Selma protests that remain part of the state’s modern memory — he says he experienced a pivotal awakening that energized his civil rights commitment.
From campus activism to a four-decade teaching career
After graduating, the author embarked on a teaching career that spanned roughly 40 years, beginning at Auburn and concluding at Troy University in 2014. In retirement he compiled his reflections and research into a comprehensive book, which documents the racial lessons he and his peers learned while resisting Jim Crow.
- Book title: AWAKENINGS TO RACISM IN ALABAMA: The Education of a Native Son and the Lessons He and His Peers Learned Resisting Jim Crow (2025)
- Length: 13 chapters and 648 pages, with a 500+ item annotated bibliography
- Availability: Locally at the Equal Justice Initiative and NewSouth Books, and via Amazon
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1950 | Ralph Bunche wins Nobel Peace Prize (reference point in memoir) |
| 1963–64 | Author serves as SGA president at Auburn University |
| March 11, 1965 | Night of Selma protests during which author experienced a turning point |
| 2014 | Author retires from teaching at Troy University |
The memoir is both a personal account and a record of scholarly inquiry, anchored by an extensive bibliography and an appendix of original materials. For Montgomery readers, it offers a familiar landscape — the Department of Archives and History, the memory of the bus boycott, the shadows of segregation — reframed through decades of reflection.
By placing local institutions and dates alongside the author’s evolving views, the book invites Montgomery citizens to consider how personal histories intersect with public change. Copies are being sold locally at the Equal Justice Initiative and NewSouth Books, providing an accessible way for residents to engage with one native son’s long and often difficult conversation with Alabama’s past.
