Home Alabama'

Carry Me Home : Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
$17.00
This is simply a necessary book for anyone who wants to understand the Civil Rights Movement, the city of Birmingham, Alabama, the relations between big business and racism and fascism in this society, and Amercian politics , not only in the historical period covered by the book, but in general. The significant weakness of this book is that McWhorter's focus is chiefly on two groups of while people: Birmingham's industrial and commercial ruling class and the variety of fascists, racists, and terrorists that they employed to maintain the dominant order.

While she does document enough about the civil rights movement in Alabama to make the book understandable, she has little concern for how the lives of everyday Black people in Birmingham were changed by what she talks about. Moreover, McWhorter focuses not on the issue of real integration of the life of Birmingham, but on the formal agreements between white business leaders and the civil rights movement in 1963 and early 1964, which even at the time that her book closes were not being carried out by the white business leaders and the local governments. So we are left at the end of the book curious as to how de facto desegregation took place. Of course, no American city, including Birmingham, has been truly desegregated in regard to housing, employment, and schools.

McWhorter gives a good picture about how big Northern-owned industry that dominated Birmingham economically and politically was responsible for the severe racism of the city. She shows how big business nourished the Klan and other violent organizations against Black people, during its battles with workers trying to unionize steel, coal, and other industries starting at the turn of the century.

The lineage of the fascist and Klan groups fed by the big business leaders during those years continued in the series of murders and bombings that shook Birmingham in the 1950s, and led to down to the individuals who bombed the 16th St. Baptist Church in 1963. For example, Hitler-loving fascist and antiSemite, Ace Carter who began in the 1930s became one of George Wallace's main speech writers in the 1960s.

That is the important part of this book: Southern racism was at the service of big capitalism nationally, not a product of something Southern, but something capitalist.

McWhorter shows how the power structure in the 1950s and 1960s resisted the civil rights movement, came to support the renewed racism represented by George Wallace, and had long before put Bull Connor into a position where his job as police commission largely involved coordinating terorism against Black people along with the Klan and neo-nazis.

She also does picture the civil rights movement in Birmingham starting with the movements that began as part of the labor radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s. She is best when she is talking about the tension between Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a militant Birmingham leader who eventually moved to Cincinatti but continued to function in Birmingham's movement, and more conservative leaders like Martin Luther King.

Toward the end, she notes that the rebellions that met Birmingham's police after the bombings in the 1960s, though condemned by the civil rights leaders, had a very strong impact on creating the fear that brought about concessions.

She does note that the Kennedy administration considered all direct action civil rights activities, like the marches that force Birmingham's rulers to make concessions, "poorly timed."


McWhorter overglorifies the white business leaders who made small concessions on integrating lunch counters and dressing rooms in stores, and hiring a few black clerks in the stores and other demands is a bit disconcerting. She tends to picture them as leaders in the effort to create integration, as opposed to the last guard of realistic resistance against real Black rights. Moreover, history, and even she shows that they backed off from their agreements for years. Again, it would have been more satisfying if she discussed how these and other concessions were won in the years after her book closes.

McWhorter has a fascination with historical and personal details of members of the white elite. We find out who was whose cousin, who was at whose wedding, who did what in 1920, 1930, 1940, 1957, and she presents hundreds of individuals and their details. Sometimes, she gets carried away and her details don't really contribute to understanding the central theme of the book, the civil rights battles in Birmingham.

Unfortunately, true after the 1963 Church bombing McWhorter concentrates almost totally on the details of the Klan and fascist terrorists suspected of the bombing, while leaving out what happened in Birmingham or the civil rights movement.

The civil rights movement in Birmingham did not end in 1963. Many of its battles remain to be fought there and throughout the country. With all of its weaknesses, Carry Me Home helps us understand the fight then and the fight now.

Sweet Home Alabama
$13.98
Would buy again from this seller. Item arrived quickly, and in condition described.
Thanks so much!

Alabama Crimson Tide #8 Youth Home Replica Football Jersey By Nike (L=16-18)
$39.99
Alabama Crimson Tide Football Jerseys This 4.7 oz. 100% nylon/polyester warp knit mesh Alabama Crimson Tide #8 Youth Home College Replica Football Jersey From Nike Team Sports features a sewn on bottom left-hem Nike jock tag, a direct embroidered Alabama logo on the lower neck, screen-printing on the number 8 on the front and back center, and the Nike Trademark Swoosh on the upper-left chest finishes out this Youth Alabama Football Jersey.

RoomMates RMK1099SCS University of Alabama Peel & Stick Appliques
$12.99
This is the easiest and most fun way to restyle a room. These simple peel and stick appliques are great for adding style anywhere. Leaves no damage or residue on the surface. Just peel and stick! This set includes 29 pre-cut appliques. Use them to create a fun, eclectic design to border your room.