|
Showing 1 - 5 of
5 matches in All Departments
This title presents the story of the pioneering troops, in their
own words. With an executive order from President Franklin
Roosevelt in 1941, the United States Marine Corps - the last
all-white branch of the U.S. military - was forced to begin
recruiting and enlisting African Americans. The first black
recruits received basic training at the segregated Camp Montford
Point, adjacent to Camp Lejeune, near Jacksonville, North Carolina.
This book, in conjunction with the documentary film of the same
name, tells the story of these pioneering African American Marines.
Drawing from interviews with 60 veterans, Melton McLaurin relates
in the Marines' own words their reasons for enlisting; their
arrival at Montford Point and the training they received there;
their lives in a segregated military and in the Jim Crow South;
their experiences of combat and service in World War II, Korea, and
Vietnam; and, their legacy. This book serves to recognize and to
honor the men who desegregated the Marine Corps and loyally served
their country in three major wars.
The Wayward Girls of Samarcand is the true story of the sensational
1931 Arson Trial in North Carolina. Sixteen poor white teenage
girls faced the death penalty for burning down two dormitories at
the State Reform School for Girls. Crusading journalist, socialite,
and attorney Nell Battle Lewis defended her clients by exposing
sadistic treatment, deplorable conditions, and forced sterilization
presided over by Samarcand superintendent Agnes B. MacNaughton. In
this her first and last trial, Lewis saved the defendants from the
electric chair.
In "Separate Pasts" Melton A. McLaurin honestly and plainly recalls
his boyhood during the 1950s, an era when segregation existed
unchallenged in the rural South. In his small hometown of Wade,
North Carolina, whites and blacks lived and worked within each
other's shadows, yet were separated by the history they shared.
"Separate Pasts" is the moving story of the bonds McLaurin formed
with friends of both races--a testament to the power of human
relationships to overcome even the most ingrained systems of
oppression.
A new afterword provides historical context for the development
of segregation in North Carolina. In his poignant portrayal of
contemporary Wade, McLaurin shows that, despite integration and the
election of a black mayor, the legacy of racism remains.
Illuminating the moral dilemmas that lie at the heart of a
slaveholding society, this book tells the story of a young slave
who was sexually exploited by her master and ultimately executed
for his murder. Celia was only fourteen years old when she was
acquired by John Newsom, an aging widower and one of the most
prosperous and respected citizens of Callaway County, Missouri. The
pattern of sexual abuse that would mark their entire relationship
began almost immediately. After purchasing Celia in a neighboring
county, Newsom raped her on the journey back to his farm. He then
established her in a small cabin near his house and visited her
regularly (most likely with the knowledge of the son and two
daughters who lived with him). Over the next five years, Celia bore
Newsom two children; meanwhile, she became involved with a slave
named George and resolved at his insistence to end the relationship
with her master. When Newsom refused, Celia one night struck him
fatally with a club and disposed of his body in her fireplace. Her
act quickly discovered, Celia was brought to trial. She received a
surprisingly vigorous defense from her court-appointed attorneys,
who built their case on a state law allowing women the use of
deadly force to defend their honor. Nevertheless, the court upheld
the tenets of a white social order that wielded almost total
control over the lives of slaves. Celia was found guilty and
hanged. Melton A. McLaurin uses Celia's story to reveal the
tensions that strained the fabric of antebellum southern society.
Celia's case demonstrates how one master's abuse of power over a
single slave forced whites to make moral decisions about the nature
of slavery. McLaurin focuses sharply on the role of gender,
exploring the degree to which female slaves were sexually
exploited, the conditions that often prevented white women from
stopping such abuse, and the inability of male slaves to defend
slave women. Setting the case in the context of the 1850s slavery
debates, he also probes the manner in which the legal system was
used to justify slavery. By granting slaves certain statutory
rights (which were usually rendered meaningless by the customary
prerogatives of masters), southerners could argue that they
observed moral restraint in the operations of their peculiar
institution. An important addition to our understanding of the
pre-Civil War era, Celia, A Slave is also an intensely compelling
narrative of one woman pushed beyond the limits of her endurance by
a system that denied her humanity at the most basic level.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|