On June 11; 1963; in a dramatic gesture that caught the nation's attention; Governor George Wallace physically blocked the entrance to Foster Auditorium on the University of Alabama's campus. His intent was to defy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach; sent on behalf of the Kennedy administration to force Alabama to accept court-ordered desegregation. After a tense confrontation; President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and Wallace backed down; allowing Vivian Malone and James Hood to become the first African Americans to enroll successfully at their state's flagship university. That night; John F. Kennedy went on television to declare civil rights a "moral issue" and to commit his administration to this cause. That same night; Medgar Evers was shot dead. In The Schoolhouse Door; E. Culpepper Clark provides a riveting account of the events that led to Wallace's historic stand; tracing a tangle of intrigue and resistance that stretched from the 1940s; when the university rejected black applicants outright; to the post-Brown v. Board of Education era. We are there in July 1955 when Thurgood Marshall and lawyers at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund win for Autherine Lucy and "all similarly situated" the right to enroll at the university. We are in the car with Lucy in February 1956 as university officials escort her to class; shielding her from a mob jeering "Lynch the nigger;" "Keep 'Bama white;" and "hit the nigger whore." (After only three days; these demonstrations resulted in Lucy's expulsion.) Clark exposes the many means; including threats and intimidation; used by university and state officials to discourage black applicants following the Lucy episode. And he explains how University of Alabama president Frank Anthony Rose eventually cooperated with the Kennedy administration to ensure a smooth transition toward desegregation. We also witness Robert Kennedy's remarkable face-to-face plea for Wallace's cooperation and the governor's adamant refusal: "I will never submit voluntarily to any integration in a school system in Alabama." As Clark writes; Wallace's carefully orchestrated surrender would leave the forces of white supremacy free to fight another day. And the Kennedys' public embrace of the civil rights movement would set in motion a political transformation that changed the presidential base of the Democratic party for the next thirty years. In these pages; full of courageous black applicants; fist-shaking demonstrators; and powerful politicians; Clark captures the dramatic confrontations that transformed the University of Alabama into a proving ground for the civil rights movement and gave the nation unforgettable symbols for its struggle to achieve racial justice.
#1772890 in Books 1987-06-04Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 5.38 x .60 x 8.00l; .89 #File Name: 0195050878304 pages
Review
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful. What early Muslims said about themselvesBy Harry EagarThis old reader -- published in 1974 as volume two of a set; volume one on history and battles; is out of print -- gains in interest with each passing explosion.Muslim apologists detest Bernard Lewis (see the review of this volume by "A reader" for confirmation). Among the traditionalists; this is understandable. But the self-described moderates and modernizers dislike him just as much; not realizing what this says about the flimsiness of their modern mask.What Muslims of so many opinions hate about Lewis is that he applies critical historical and linguistic methods to their myths. This threatens to be as corrosive of some of those myths as the same method was of Christianity; monarchism and any number of other myths where western scholars have used it.Of all Lewis' books; "Islam" should be the most acceptable to them; since it consists almost entirely of translations; with very little -- insufficient; in my opinion -- commentary.Most of these ancient documents were in Arabic; with a few in Turkish and Persian and a couple in Hebrew.Lewis comments that the remains of written records from the early centuries of Islam are comparatively scanty; and what do exist have not been systematically collected and translated; unlike the huge compendiums of Greek and Latin.It is impossible not to be impressed by the energy invested in spreading the doctrines of Mohammad so far and wide in the early years. Or not to marvel at how; within less than two centuries; the theologians managed to shut down further discussion. Christianity; by contrast; was just beginning to fight its doctrinal battles when it was 200 years old.Plus; the Muslims had simultaneously to devise practical rules for government; whereas Christianity eventually just took over a functioning government and bureaucracy. Thus; the section on business is one of the longest in the book.How this was done can be traced in the first two sections on religion and on "heresy and revolt." (In strict doctrine; as Lewis notes; Islam does not allow for heresy. In practice; it does.)The remaining sections give a glimpse into how life was lived; whether in accordance with or in disregard for religion. There is travel literature; a very interesting section on Arab racism; which would appeal to any Nazi; something about relations between the sexes (almost entirely from the man's viewpoint); slavery.Nothing about art and little about literature. There are only a few scraps of poetry; which is a bit of a surprise; since poetry is regarded by the Arabs as their supreme art; and it was also highly respected by Turks and Persians.The last section is perhaps the most interesting. It includes selections from Arab and Persian joke books. These amount (sometimes) to a wry commentary on the doctrines exposed in the earlier sections. Reading them is rather like studying Russian jokes in the Communist era to learn what the masses really thought.Among the insights I found in these extracts:Female genital mutilation was; at this period; regarded by Arabs as an odd; alien custom of the Bujjas; an African people. (The Bujjas also excised young men's nipples; a practice not adopted by Muslims.)Avicenna; the "great" Arab philosopher so admired by Christian Europe; was a self-proclaimed ignoramus.Ibn Batutta; the much-admired traveler; was a raving Jew-hater and proud of it."The Arabs . . . never had a king who could . . . control their fools."29 of 35 people found the following review helpful. Well measured and critical responseBy Jeremy DaviesThis is not Bernard Lewis's best work; but it still retains the unbiased; scholarly yet readable style of his previous efforts. He is unflinching - which upsets many zealots - in his analysis and lacking in apologist platitudes; but without honesty; there can be no literature.I hope he continues to document Middle Eastern history uneffected by political and religous fundamentalism. The literature of history needs him.11 of 122 people found the following review helpful. Bernard Lewis is a racist; anti-Muslim; Anti-Arab writerBy A CustomerBernard Lewis is a racist; anti-Muslim; Anti-Arab writer. I do not recommend any of his work. I find his work to be not accurate; and offensive.
