Brother to a Dragonfly

By Will D. Campbell

Book Overview

In Brother to a Dragonfly, Will D. Campbell writes about his life growing up poor in Amite County, Mississippi, during the 1930s alongside his older brother, Joe. Though they grew up in a close-knit family and cared for each other, the two went on to lead very different lives. After serving together in World War II, Will became a highly educated Baptist minister who later became a major figure in the early years of the civil rights movement, and Joe became a pharmacist who developed a substance abuse problem that ultimately took his life.

Brother to a Dragonfly also serves as a historical record. Though Will's love and dedication to his brother are the primary story, interwoven throughout the narrative is the story of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement. Will is present through many of the most pivotal moments in history--he was one of four people who escorted black students integrating the Little Rock public schools; he was the only white person present at the founding of the SCLC; he helped CORE and SNCC Freedom Riders integrate interstate bus travel; he joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s campaign of boycotts, sit-ins, and marches in Birmingham; and he was at the Lorraine Motel the night Dr. King was assassinated.

Will's accomplishments, however, never take the spotlight from his brother, and as his relationship with Joe evolves, so does Will's faith. Featuring a new foreword by Congressman John Lewis, this book brings back to print the combined lives of Will Campbell--Will the brother and Will the preacher.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1496816307
• ISBN13: 9781496816306
• Release Date: March 2018
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

poignant reflections by renegade christian

If you were raised in the south as I was, have an interest in the civil rights movement, or want to enjoy one of the most irreverent Christian curmudgeons ever to irritate the church, then read Will Campbell (b. 1924). Campbell was born and raised in the rural and very poor deep south of Amite, Mississippi, "ordained" by family members at a local Baptist church when he was seventeen, and, in a delightfully improbable life, played a central role as an activist and agitator on behalf of African Americans. But to leave it at that would badly misrepresent him. After World War II Campbell studied at Tulane, Wake Forest, and Yale. He served as Director of Religious life at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), but left after two years because his controversial views attracted death threats. He then did a stint for the National Council of Churches where he worked with most of the civil rights luminaries. In 1957, Campbell was one of four people who escorted the nine black students who integrated Little Rock's Central High School; and he was the only white person to attend the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. So, how did he come to sip whiskey with the KKK and get hate mail from the left? Campbell came to distrust all movements and institutions, especially the church (he once referred to television preachers as liars, frauds, and "electronic soul molesters"). He dismissed all politics as impotent. It was less than Christian, he realized, to agitate for the oppressed but to hate the oppressor. No, one could not preach what Luther called a "fictitious grace." God loves the redneck Klansmen as well as the disinherited blacks. For the most part, Brother to a Dragonfly tells the story of Campbell's deep love for his brother Joe, and how the latter's tragic demise to alcohol, drugs, and domestic violence led to his premature death. But it was through Joe and an overtly pagan family friend that Campbell had a conversion later in life. Without realizing it, he recalls, his twenty years of ministry had become one of "liberal sophistication. An attempted negation of Jesus, of human engineering, of riding the coattails of Caesar, of playing on his ballpark, by his rules and with his ball, of looking to government to make and verify and authenticate our morality, of worshipping at the shrine of enlightenment and academia, of making an idol of the Supreme Court, a theology of law and order and of not only denying the Faith I professed to hold but my history and my people--the Thomas Colemans [who murdered two civil rights workers]. Loved. And if loved, forgiven. And if forgiven, reconciled." There was all the difference in the world, he realized, between being a "doctrinaire social activist," however laudable, and a follower of Jesus. The key? "I came to understand the nature of tragedy. And one who understands the nature of tragedy can never take sides." Christian ren

The finest coming of age story I have encountered

Brother to a dragonfly, Will D Campbell's brilliant,evocative, nostalgic luminous memoir teels the story of his family in the pre-tva rural south. Though much much more then a simple coming of age story,it is the story of 2 brothers,their lives amid the greatest change in this ountry since the civil war. Will D Campbell and his brother Joe stories are told so movingly,and with such deep power that ,by the end it will move you to tears. It is the sory of a man,family,RELIGION,the south,race,addiction,love and death. It will shatter any preconcieved notions and stereotypes,for Will D Campell is a true iconoclast. I run out of superlatives to describe this book. Read it.

one of my top 10

This is a truly wonderful autobiography. Anyone who has a brother (especially Southerners) should read this chronicle of growing up in Mississippi. I loved it so much I shared it with my Northern friends, and they loved it too. If you aren't moved by this work, check your pulse.

The most profound book I have read. A courageous work.

No other book that I have read has demonstrated the courage that Campbell took to look at personal family heartache, popular social cause, and politically unpopular issues. Campbell's message tells the reader his struggles, but does not tell the reader what to think. He has had the courage to bare his thoughts.

Campbell's first book an instant classic

Will D. Campbell, civil rights activist, itenerant baptist preacher, and author extrodinaire hit the homeroom first time up with this wonderful biography/autobiography. It sends tears to my eyes every time I read it. It should be on everyone's top 100 novels of all time!