Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White

By William Sturkey

Book Overview

Winner of the 2020 Z?calo Public Square Book Prize

A rich, multigenerational saga of race and family in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, that tells the story of how Jim Crow was built, how it changed, and how the most powerful social movement in American history came together to tear it down.

If you really want to understand Jim Crow--what it was and how African Americans rose up to defeat it--you should start by visiting Mobile Street in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the heart of the historic black downtown. There you can see remnants of the shops and churches where, amid the violence and humiliation of segregation, men and women gathered to build a remarkable community. William Sturkey introduces us to both old-timers and newcomers who arrived in search of economic opportunities promised by the railroads, sawmills, and factories of the New South. He also takes us across town and inside the homes of white Hattiesburgers to show how their lives were shaped by the changing fortunes of the Jim Crow South.

Sturkey reveals the stories behind those who struggled to uphold their southern "way of life" and those who fought to tear it down--from William Faulkner's great-grandfather, a Confederate veteran who was the inspiration for the enigmatic character John Sartoris, to black leader Vernon Dahmer, whose killers were the first white men ever convicted of murdering a civil rights activist in Mississippi. Through it all, Hattiesburg traces the story of the Smith family across multiple generations, from Turner and Mamie Smith, who fled a life of sharecropping to find opportunity in town, to Hammond and Charles Smith, in whose family pharmacy Medgar Evers and his colleagues planned their strategy to give blacks the vote.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674976355
• ISBN13: 9780674976351
• Release Date: March 2019
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 456 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

A Look Through History in One Town

Hattiesburg. I'd never heard of the town before, I had no idea whether it was historically/culturally/religiously important to the US. But the title caught my eye. A side by side of Black and White experience. Interesting. And indeed, it was interesting. Although it moved slowly, it is a detailed history of the town and it's background. (Fun fact: it's Choctaw land actually until a white man surveyed it and then decided to buy it and name it after his wife.) Yet even though it at times moved slowly, the intense racial prejudice, anti Black laws, lynchings, and pointed policies made me incredulous. We don't learn about these cities when we study US history. Or at least I didn't. But Hattiesburg is responsible for destroying thousands of ancient pine trees, and very belatedly starting to plant new ones only after job loss had reached severe levels. It's amazing how much people WON'T listen to scientists and those warning of the damage being done, until it is literally in front of their face and threatening their livelihood. Guess not a lot has changed there. I do recommend reading this book, but I also don't think most people care about this kind of thing like I do. I could be wrong, but I rarely speak to someone else in the US who is interested in these topics. (And those of you who are, you know who you are and I love that about our relationships!) I wish more people cared, but I know not everyone is lucky enough to have the mental energy to read and digest these types of topics. I still thoroughly believe it should be done though. You know the saying about history and being doomed to repeat it if you don't know it... Anyways, 10/10 recommend