Black, White, and Southern: Race Relations and Southern Culture, 1940 to the Present

In this often moving study, Goldfield deftly analyzes the elaborate etiquette that formerly governed race relations in the South and kept whites and blacks virtual strangers. He is less compelling in arguing that one great legacy of the civil rights movement was its restorative impact on Southern culture, though he effectively demonstrates how the long-held myth of white supremacy poisoned the region. Familiar signposts in blacks' struggle for equality--the Montgomery bus boycott, Little Rock, Selma, the Freedom Rides, sit-ins, etc.--are seen here as elements in a moral drama of sin and redemption. Professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Goldfield ponders the return of a partially segregated public school system in the South and the persistence of black poverty. Photos. (Feb.)