Devil's Sanctuary: An Eyewitness History of Mississippi Hate Crimes
Mississippi State history mixes with the authors' personal memories in this vivid, often shocking look at the state's legacy of racism. Focusing on several of the most notorious racial incidents of the 1950s and '60s, including the violent opposition to the integration of the University of Mississippi; the murder of Mississippi's first NAACP field secretary, Medgar Evers; and the murders of civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, the book examines the complicity—and, just as often, outright support and collaboration—of the state's media, legal system and clergy in upholding a racial system that the authors persuasively refer to as state-sponsored terror. Alston Jr., a former president of the Mississippi Bar Association, and Dickerson (Goin' Back to Memphis) describe the activities of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a quasi-independent spy agency created in 1956 to monitor and intimidate supporters of civil rights and to protect Mississippi against integration efforts by the federal government. This thorough, absorbing overview of Mississippi's racist past is only impeded when the authors linger too long over irrelevant personal or professional history.(July)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.