3 Review(s)

In this book, Thomas Adams Upchurch presents the true story of a white youth's experiences with race relations in the early years of integration in Mississippi. Upchurch, a first-generation product of the integrated public schools in Mississippi, describes what it was like to be white in a public school that was 70% black. The book offers a glimpse into the triumphs, challenges, and failures of integration in the 1970s and 1980s and beyond, from one 'white minorityOs' perspective. By analyzing the factors of prejudice, academics, sports, masculinity, religion, and attempts at racial reconciliation, this book vividly shows why race relations must be kept in the context of the larger picture of southern life and society. It hopes to bring more attention to this little-discussed and infrequently written-about period and topic of American history.