Matthew Countryman traces the efforts of two generations of black Philadelphians to turn the City of Brotherly Love into a place of promise and opportunity for all. He explores the origins of civil rights liberalism, the failure to deliver on the promise of racial equality and the rise of the Black Power movement.

Southern cooking meets the Brooklyn foodie scene, keeping charm (and grits) intact Georgia native Nicole Taylor spent her early twenties trying to distance herself from her southern cooking roots--a move "up" to Brooklyn gave her a fresh appreciation for the bread and biscuits, Classic Fried Chicken, Lemon Coconut Stack Cake, and other flavors of her childhood. The Up South Cookbook is a bridge to the past and a door to the future. The recipes in this deeply personal cookbook offer classic Southern favorites informed and updated by newly-discovered ingredients and different cultures. Here she gives us pimento cheese elevated with a dollop of creme fraiche, grits flavored with New York State Cheddar and blue cheese, and deviled eggs made with smoked trout from her favorite Jewish deli. Other favorites include Collard Greens Pesto and Pasta, Roasted Duck with Cheerwine Cherry Sauce, and Benne and Banana Sandwich Cookies. The recipes speak to a place "where a story is ready to be told and there is always sweet tea chilling." This promises to be a new Southern classic.

New edition available: Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South, 20th Anniversary Edition, ISBN 978-1-944838-58-4 Features a new introduction by scholars Joseph Hill and Carolyn McCaskill Mary Herring Wright's memoir adds an important dimension to the current literature in that it is a story by and about an African American deaf child. The author recounts her experiences growing up as a deaf person in Iron Mine, North Carolina, from the 1920s through the 1940s. Her story is unique and historically significant because it provides valuable descriptive information about the faculty and staff of the North Carolina school for Black deaf and blind students from the perspective of a student as well as a student teacher. In addition, this engrossing narrative contains details about the curriculum, which included a week-long Black History celebration where students learned about important Blacks such as Madame Walker, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and George Washington Carver. It also describes the physical facilities as well as the changes in those facilities over the years. In addition, Sounds Like Home occurs over a period of time that covers two major events in American history, the Depression and World War II. Wright's account is one of enduring faith, perseverance, and optimism. Her keen observations will serve as a source of inspiration for others who are challenged in their own ways by life's obstacles.

An amazing collection of 25 stories and memoirs, including such well-known authors as Carson McCullers, William Faulkner, Alice Walker, and Maya Angelou, and others, that explore different perspectives on living in the South.

Perhaps the greatest migration in America's history is the early twentieth-century movement of African Americans from the southern states to the urban Northeast and Midwest. Up South captures the totality of this pivotal black experience in a single volume. Including photographs, letters, and turn-of-the-century items in the Chicago Defender, Crisis, and Opportunity, as well as writings by Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Arna Bontemps, Mary McLeod Bethune, and W. E. B. du Bois, Up South is a moving and eye-opening anthology of African American literature, scholarship, and journalism from the first half of this century.

What many readers have wished for is now reality: a richly descriptive ethnography of street rappers. Blowing up refers to rappers dream of becoming rich and famous, or, at the least, successful as recording artists. Jooyoung Lee adds a shape to his story of Flawliis, VerBS, E. Crimsin, Psychosiz, and Tick-a-Lott: how do young black men from the inner city navigate their twenties? Blowin Up is a vibrant look at the young-adult stage of people who grow up in the shadow of gangs, dead-end jobs, and a glittering entertainment industry (the setting is Los Angeles). No other account of ghetto youth affords us this particular angle of vision. Lee discovers that in South Central L.A., rap can create bridges that bring young men together with peers from different neighborhoods (underscoring the importance of a healthy alternative to gangs). A rapper s underground artistic career is rooted in battle skills and crowd appeal, and, to boot, is meritocratic (whereas mainstream career success is based on branding, timing, funding, networks, and gimmicks). Rapping is an embodied artit takes much practice to learn, and requires body skills in dance, stance, and voice. Lee homes in on the skills and personalities of individual rappers, but he also illuminates the complex hip-hop scene around which these young men orbit, giving us detailed understandings of how young men navigate the intricate, tightly-wound world of tragedy and opportunity in the city. Lee balances the prospect of risk and existential uncertainty for youth entering a young adult life-stage with the hope for a big break in forging an entertainment career. In the end, Lee shows us how the arts can shape the lives of at-risk youth."

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.

This groundbreaking new book weaves personal portraits of lesbian and gay Southerners with interdisciplinary commentary about the impact of culture, race, and gender on the development of sexual identity. Growing Up Gay in the South is an important book that focuses on the distinct features of Southern life. It will enrich your understanding of the unique pressures faced by gay men and lesbians in this region--the pervasiveness of fundamental religious beliefs; the acceptance of racial, gender, and class community boundaries; the importance of family name and family honor; the unbending view of appropriate childhood behaviors; and the intensity of adolescent culture. You will learn what it is like to grow up gay in the South as these Southern lesbians and gay men candidly share their attitudes and feelings about themselves, their families, their schooling, and their search for a sexual identity. These insightful biographies illustrate the diversity of persons who identify themselves as gay or lesbian and depict the range of prejudice and problems they have encountered as sexual rebels. Not just a simple compilation of “coming out” stories, this landmark volume is a human testament to the process of social questioning in the search for psychological wholeness, examining the personal and social significance of acquiring a lesbian or gay identity within the Southern culture. Growing Up Gay in the South combines intriguing personal biographies with the extensive use of scholarship from lesbian and gay studies, Southern history and literature, and educational thought and practice. These features, together with an extensive bibliography and appendices of data, make this essential reading for educators and other professionals working with gay and lesbian youth.

In the half century after the Civil War, evangelical southerners turned increasingly to Sunday schools as a means of rejuvenating their destitute region and adjusting to an ever-modernizing world. By educating children -- and later adults -- in Sunday school and exposing them to Christian teachings, biblical truths, and exemplary behavior, southerners felt certain that a better world would emerge and cast aside the death and destruction wrought by the Civil War. In To Raise Up the South, Sally G. McMillen offers an examination of Sunday schools in seven black and white denominations and reveals their vital role in the larger quest for southen redemption. McMillen begins by explaining how the schools were established, detailing northern missionaries' collaboration in their creation and the eventual southern resistance to this northern aid. She then turns to the classroom, discussing the roles of church officials, teachers, ministers, and parents in the effort to raise pious children; the different functions of men and women; and the social benefits of such participation. Though denominations of both races saw Sunday schools as a way to increase their numbers and mold their children, white southerners rarely raised the race issue in the classroom. Black evangelicals, on the other hand, used their Sunday schools to discuss and decry Jim Crow laws, rising violence, and widespread injustices. Integrating the study of race, class, gender, and religion, To Raise Up the South provides an exciting new lens through which to view the turbulent years of Reconstruction and the emergence of the New South. It charts the rise of an institution that became a mainstay in the lives of millions of southerners.

A classic that has been in print since its first publication in 1983, Womenfolks is both a personal memoir and a meditation on the often pernicious mythologies of southern cultural history. Shirley Abbott gives us the gritty, independent women of the backwoods, the South’s true heroines, whose hardscrabble world is one of red dirt and hard work—a far cry from the hoopskirts and magnolias of southern lore. As honest, vibrant, and remarkable as the women whose stories illuminate these pages, Womenfolks draws a vivid portrait of a rural culture beset by poverty and sustained by deeply rooted traditions. In her new preface to this edition, Abbott assesses what has changed—and what may never change—about the burdens of southern history and expresses her hope that the better angels of our nature may prevail in our still-new century.