{"product_id":"taking-the-fight-south-chronicle-of-a-jews-battle-for-civil-rights-in-mississippi-hardback-9780268109165","title":"Taking the Fight South; Chronicle of a Jew's Battle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Hardback) 9780268109165","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eTaking the Fight South\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eChronicle of a Jew's Battle for Civil Rights in Mississippi\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eHoward Ball (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780268109165\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 1 February 2021\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e280 pages, 35 b\u0026amp;w illustrations - 35 Halftones, black and white\u003cbr\u003e23.8 x 15.9 x 1.8 cm, 0.666 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I read with rapt interest Howard Ball's memoir about his experiences—both the achievements and the obstacles—of living in Starkville, where he taught political science at Mississippi State University from 1976 to 1982. The clash between a New York Jewish liberal activist and white reactionaries was inevitable.\" —\u003ci\u003eSouthern Jewish History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"More than his personal experience with religious otherness, the heart of the memoir involves Ball's reflections upon incidents of racial discrimination and the attempts that he and others made to remedy it.\" —\u003ci\u003eH-Nationalism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Ball taught at Mississippi State University, adjacent to the town of Starkville, from 1976 to 1982, and in this engaging book, he recalls his experiences as a liberal in a staunchly conservative state which had been an integral part of the Confederacy and which fiercely resisted desegregation.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Times of Israel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"In 1976, historian and civil rights activist Howard Ball moved his family from the Bronx to Starkville, Mississippi, where they'd stay until 1982. Ball describes the experience of his Jewish New York brood as they fend off KKK phone calls and fight for a more just future.\" —\u003ci\u003eJewish Exponent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Ball's third book as an interloper in the Deep South is poignant, enlightening, and serves as a reminder of how far Mississippi has come and yet how far we still have to go.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Daily Leader\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Howard Ball's memoir connects the dots between his teaching and scholarship on constitutional law and civil rights, his life and career as an advocate for racial equality, and his Jewish identity. It offers a first-hand narrative of southern Jewish community from the perspective of a never-fully-welcomed New Yorker. Recounting his research on the failure of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to guarantee compliance, the memoir sheds depressing light on voter discrimination today. It reminds us of the fragility of democracy and of the urgency of resisting ongoing efforts to subvert it.\" —Cheryl Lester, co-author of \u003ci\u003eSocial Work Practice With a Difference\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Howard Ball has written extensively about civil rights and civil liberties. \u003ci\u003eTaking the Fight South \u003c\/i\u003eoffers readers a candid and emotional view of the six years he spent living in Starkville and teaching political science at Mississippi State University. In the process, Ball reinforces his Jewish identity as well as his determination to fight racism, finding out firsthand what it takes to be a 'mensch.'\" —Steven F. Lawson, co-author of \u003ci\u003eExploring American Histories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Howard Ball is a tenacious legal activist and teacher of civil rights. His involvement with the cause has been lifelong. More than anything else, his work in the Mississippi ACLU grounds this entertaining and informative book.\" —Howard Winant, co-author of \u003ci\u003eRacial Formation in the United States\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"As we examine the horrific examples of public racism, Islamophobia, and anti-immigrant policy and behavior in contemporary society, I read this book personally, internalizing it deeply to ask if I would have had similar courage.\" —Mark Curnutte, author of \u003ci\u003eAcross the Color Line\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTaking the Fight South\u003c\/i\u003e provides a timely and telling reminder of the vigilance democracy requires if racial justice is to be fully realized.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDistinguished historian and civil rights activist Howard Ball has written dozens of books during his career, including the landmark biography of Thurgood Marshall,\u003ci\u003e A Defiant Life\u003c\/i\u003e, and the critically acclaimed \u003ci\u003eMurder in Mississippi\u003c\/i\u003e, chronicling the Mississippi Burning killings. In \u003ci\u003eTaking the Fight South\u003c\/i\u003e, arguably his most personal book, Ball focuses on six years, from 1976 to 1982, when, against the advice of friends and colleagues in New York, he and his Jewish family moved from the Bronx to Starkville, Mississippi, where he received a tenured position in the political science department at Mississippi State University. For Ball, his wife, Carol, and their three young daughters, the move represented a leap of faith, ultimately illustrating their deep commitment toward racial justice.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBall, with breathtaking historical authority, narrates the experience of his family as Jewish outsiders in Mississippi, an unfamiliar and dangerous landscape contending with the aftermath of the civil rights struggle. Signs and natives greeted them with a humiliating and frightening message: \"No Jews, Negroes, etc., or dogs welcome.\" From refereeing football games, coaching soccer, and helping young black girls integrate the segregated Girl Scout troops in Starkville, to life-threatening calls from the KKK in the middle of the night, from his work for the ACLU to his arguments in the press and before a congressional committee for the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Ball takes the reader to a precarious time and place in the history of the South. He was briefly an observer but quickly became an activist, confronting white racists stubbornly holding on to a Jim Crow white supremacist past and fighting to create a more diverse, equitable, and just society.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBall's story is one of an imitable advocate who didn't just observe as a passive spectator but interrupted injustice. \u003ci\u003eTaking the Fight South\u003c\/i\u003e will join the list of required books to read about the Black Lives Matter movement and the history of racism in the United States. The book will also appeal to readers interested in Judaism because of its depiction of anti-Semitism directed toward Starkville's Jewish community, struggling to survive in the heart of the deep and very fundamentalist Protestant South.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1. Going Down to Mississippi\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2. The Jewish Community in Starkville, Mississippi and We \"Fast Talkin' New York Jews\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3. Refereeing Football Games in the Magnolia State\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4. Confronting Racism While Serving On the Mississippi Chapter, ACLU Board of Directors\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5. Defending the 1965 Voting Rights Act\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6. A Solitary Hebrew Working on Campus and in the Field\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e7. Leaving the \"Magnolia\" State\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e8. Conclusion. Reflecting on the Yin\/Lang of Life in Mississippi: Two Men from Union, Marcus Gordon and \"Preacher\" Killen, Collide in 2005\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Notre Dame Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52530841059608,"sku":"9780268109165","price":22.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/taking-the-fight-south-chronicle-of-a-jews-battle-for-civil-rights-in-mississippi-hardback-9780268109165","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}