What was it like growing up white in Mississippi as the Civil
Rights Movement exploded in the 1950s and '60s. How did white
children reconciled the decency and fairness taught by their
parents with the indecency and unfairness of the Mississippi Way of
Life, the euphemism applied to the pervasive Jim Crow. How did the
Civil Rights Movement influence white kids coming of age in the
most segregated place in America? Won Over, a memoir, examines
these questions as it traces the journey of United States District
Judge William Alsup, born white in 1945 to hard-working parents in
Mississippi. They believed in segregation. But they also taught
their children fairness and decency and therein lay the conflict, a
struggle at the core of the human predicament in the South. As Won
Over recalls near its outset, the author's earliest doubt about the
system came at age twelve when what he'd thought stood as an
abandoned shack at the bottom of a sand quarry turned out to be a
school for black kids, whom we saw playing in the mud outside its
door. At the end, Won Over reflects on a 1966 challenge by the
author and his college roommate to the Mississippi Speaker Ban, an
official rule against any "controversial" speaker coming onto a
college campus in Mississippi, a rule used to quash their
invitation to the state president of the NAACP to speak at their
college, Mississippi State University. After a tense showdown, the
roommates won that challenge. In January 1967, Aaron Henry became
the first black ever to speak on a white college campus in
Mississippi, receiving a standing ovation. The memoir traces the
influences that drew the author from traditional Southern attitudes
toward a color-blind ideal. Those influences included his older
sister, Willanna, his closest circle of friends, a charismatic
mentor in college, and the moral force of the Civil Rights
Movement. Won Over recounts their steps along that journey — a
counter protest to a John Birch Society billboard calling for the
impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren; meeting personally with
the brother of slain leader Medgar Evers to convey condolences; a
letter to the editor of the statewide paper on behalf of his circle
of friends declaring "We are for civil rights for Negroes"; joining
his college roommate in a rally at Tougaloo College to support the
Meredith March Against Racism; and going to the Liberty Baptist
Church in Chicago to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. exhort the
faithful in their summer-long protest against housing and
employment discrimination. In 1967, William Alsup went on to
Harvard Law School, then to clerk for Justice William O. Douglas.
He briefly practiced civil rights law in Mississippi before moving
to San Francisco, where he became a trial attorney and, in 1999,
received an appointment as United States District Judge. What was
it like growing up white in Mississippi as the civil rights
movement exploded in the 1950s and ’60s? How did some white
children reconcile the decency and fairness taught by their parents
with the indecency and unfairness of the Mississippi "Way of Life,"
the euphemism applied to Jim Crow segregation? Won Over examines
these questions as it traces the life journey of United States
District Judge William Alsup, born in Mississippi in 1945 to
hard-working parents who believed in segregation but also in
fairness and decency. Therein lay the struggle at the core of the
human predicament in the South. Alsup’s memoir recounts the
influences that drew the author from traditional Southern attitudes
toward a color-blind ideal. Those influences included his older
sister, Willanna, his closest circle of friends, a charismatic
mentor in college, and the moral force of the civil rights
movement. Won Over recalls some of his steps along that journey—a
counterprotest to a John Birch Society billboard calling for the
impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren; a personal meeting with
the brother of slain leader Medgar Evers to convey condolences; a
letter to the editor of the statewide paper on behalf of his circle
of friends declaring "We are for civil rights for Negroes"; a
successful 1966 challenge to a statewide ban on "controversial"
speakers on college campuses, used to prevent blacks from being
invited to speak; and a visit to a Chicago church to hear Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. speak against housing and employment
discrimination.
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