Inside Agitators: White Southerners in the Civil Rights Movement

by Professor David L. Chappell

"With keen insight, Chappell argues that not only were white southerners far from solid in their commitment to segregation during the civil rights era, but that the movement actively exploited and widened their divisions to achieve both local victories and federal intervention."--Mark Newman, Journal of American Studies "One of the many virtues of David Chappell's fascinating study is that he does not romanticize white southerners who were sympathetic toward the civil rights movement. Rather than depicting them simply as courageous dissenters, he shows that their motives for supporting civil rights reform were varied and complex -- a mixture of altruism, pragmatism, paternalism, guilt, and numerous other idiosyncratic sentiments." -- Clayborne Carson, Editor of the Papers of Martin Luther King Jr. "Chappell is to be commended for struggling with hard questions about historical causation."--Robert J. Norrell, Journal of American History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers will be hard-pressed to find a more insightful, elucidating look at how civil rights moved forward in the South during the 1930s-early 1960s, as moderate whites were, perhaps, at least as responsible, sometimes unwittingly and hesitantly, as civil rights movement leaders in opening the door for ultimate enactment and enforcement of federal desegregation law.

Chappelle does not minimize the work of civil rights leaders, for their heroics and stalwart determination were surpassed by no one, but he highlights how white moderate politicians, and particularly businessmen, came to realize that desegregation was becoming both politically and economically advantageous, more so than remaining ensconced in stubborn segregationalism - a strategy that would have turned the press and the nation at large against the South - such that, where moderates' conviction and empathy often failed in the argument for desegregation, the argument for expediency carried the day. Civil rights leaders would have almost certainly preferred that whites in the South do the right thing for its own sake, but absent of that, expediency would do.

[Will Standridge, II · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly insightful read about the role of white’s during the Civil Right’s movement. For good and bad, it shows how small interest groups of white people greatly impacted the direction and actions of the Civil Rights Movement.