Reading

Virginia Durr, Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr (University of Alabama Press, 1985). Available through our library as a free ebook. Click here.

Assignment

Copy, paste, and answer the following questions; submit them to the dropbox by midnight on June 10.

1. How would you describe Virginia Foster's childhood (1903-1920)? What did her parents and grandparents do? How was she raised? What was she taught about race relations?
2. Virginia Foster went to Wellesley College in 1921. Describe her experience there and why it was important?
3. As a young person, Virginia knew little about sex. Yet, she brings it up repeatedly. Why was sex so important to the story she was telling.
4. In 1923, Virginia returned to Birmingham and made her “debut.” Describe the important developments in her life between 1923 and 1933.
5. Who was Hugo Black and how was he related to Virginia Foster Durr?
6. In 1933, Clifford and Virginia Foster Durr relocated to Seminary Hill, Virginia. Why did they move? And, what was Cliff doing in Washington?
7. Describe Virginia's life at Seminary Hill. Who were some of the people she knew? What did she do during the 1930s?
8. What was the Report on Economic Conditions of the South? Who wrote it and where was it largely written?
9. What was the Southern Conference for Human Welfare?
10. What was the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax? Why was Virginia interested in the poll tax issue?
11. According to Virginia, what position did Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt take on the important racial issues in the South. Why?
12. Identify the following individuals: Aubrey Williams, Myles Horton, John L. Lewis, James Dombrowski, Clark Foreman.
13. What was Virginia's position on Henry Wallace and his run for the Presidency in 1948? What did she think about Harry Truman?
14. Clifford Durr worked at the FCC from 1941 to 1948. Then, he opened a law practice in Washington, D.C. There, he defended Frank Oppenheimer. Who was he and what was he accused of?
15. During a brief stint in Denver, Colorado, Virginia Durr got into trouble after signing a petition. Describe the situation and its outcome.
16. In 1951, the Durrs moved back to Montgomery, Alabama, where Cliff opened a law practice. What were Cliff's views on race and the responsibilities of Southern white men? Did Virginia have different views?
18. Using the Eastland Hearings of 1954, describe the impact that the anticommunist crowd had on civil rights activism.
19. What role did the Durrs play in Montgomery between 1955 and 1965? What key events happened there and what did the Durrs do? You might mention: E.D. Nixon, Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Judge Richard Rives, and Judge Frank Johnson.
20. Overall, what do you take from this “autobiography” of Virginia Durr's life? Would you describe her as a white liberal? If so, what does her story tell you about the “white liberal” during the civil rights movement? If not, why not?

Reading

Clive Webb, ed., Massive Resistance: Southern Opposition to the Second Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2005).

Assignment

Each student will read Clive Webb's edited collection, Massive Resistance, before writing a single-spaced, 500-word precis on an assigned essay from the collection. Submit your precis to the dropbox by midnight on June 17.

Assigned essays will be posted here.

Reading

Anders Walker, The Ghost of Jim Crow: How Southern Moderates Used Brown v. Board of Education to Stall Civil Rights (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Assignment

Each student will write a 750-word book review on Anders Walker's The Ghost of Jim Crow. Submit your review to the dropbox by midnight on June 24.

Reading

Catherine Fosl, Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

Assignment

Each student will write a 750-word book review on Catherine Fosl, Subversive Southerner. Submit your review to the dropbox by midnight on July 8.

Reading

Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics (Louisiana State University Press, 2000).

Assignment

Each student will write a 750-word book review on Dan Carter's The Politics of Rage. Submit your review to the dropbox by midnight on July 22.

Reading

Timothy B. Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story (Three Rivers Press, 2005).

Assignment

Each student will write a 750-word book review on Tim Tyson's Blood Done Sign My Name. Submit your review to the dropbox by midnight on August 3.