Inside Agitators: White Southerners in the Civil Rights Movement

by David L. Chappell

Winner of the Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights in North America Award from the Gustavus Myers Center "In the movement, we always said that, like in a washing machine, it was the agitator that got the dirt out. David Chappell's book shows how the inside agitators helped cleanse the society of an extreme injustice. It is an enlightening and important look at a less publicized part of this history." -Andrew Young "A superb study done with subtlety and keen insight, it is absolutely essential for understanding the vital role white Southerners played in the civil rights movement." -C. Vann Woodward, Yale University "Chappell's argument is insightful and worth serious attention. It makes particularly fascinating reading from the perspective of the 1990s." -David R. Colburn, Reviews in American History "In this engaging work on Southern whites who sympathized with the Civil Rights Movement, Chappell argues that moderate whites, though lacking a moral commitment to civil rights, played a key role in the movement's success at both the local and national levels." - Virginia Quarterly Review

336 pages, Paperback

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.