Standing Firm in the Dixie: The Freedom Struggle in Laurel, Mississippi

In this well-researched debut, historian Arrington succeeds in “lift[ing] the veil of anonymity” that he argues has “long hidden” the civil rights gains achieved by residents of the small town of Laurel, Miss. Beginning in 1832 with the town’s establishment as a lumber camp and preceding through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the 1960s civil rights movement to the present day, Arrington spotlights how Laurel’s Black community has come together to fight organized white supremacy (including a local Klan outpost established at the turn of the 20th century). These efforts included pushing for voting rights and the right to unionize in the 1950s and ’60s; battling for school desegregation, which extended well into the ’70s and ’80s; and challenging a corrupt legal system in the ’80s and ’90s. Arrington highlights how often Laurel was visited by national figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr., who saw the community as fertile ground for combatting segregation, and how the town saw many of its young people go on to leadership positions within the movement at the state and national levels. While the huge amount of minutiae might be difficult to sift through for outsiders, Mississippians will find this a thorough and enlightening overview of local civil rights history. (Self-published)