Civil Rights Era Archives • Rabid Reader's Reviews

Arkansas Summer by Anne Moose

Publication Date: April 16, 2017

In Arkansas Summer by Anne Moose, it’s 1955 and Catherine is a college student. She travels from California to Arkansas to help her father sort out her grandmother’s situation in the wake of his father’s death. She reconnects with Jimmy, the son of her grandmother’s housekeeper and her favorite playmate as a young child. The attraction between them is strong, but the south is a dangerous place for a black man showing anything other than casual indifference to a white woman. Will their love survive the hate of those around them? Continue reading Arkansas Summer by Anne Moose

Fiction Reviews, Historical Fiction, Romance

1950s, African-American, Civil Rights Era, Multicultural

Rabid Reader’s Book List for Human Rights Day 2016

If you are looking for books dealing with human rights, check out those that have been reviewed on this homepage. Our main post with an overview of books and movies were reviewed for human rights day 2016 will be published later. At the moment, enjoy the Rabid Reader’s Book List for Human Rights Day 2016 and make sure to visit this site later.

Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism by Mark Curriden & Leroy Phillips

Genre: nonfiction, human rights, political science, African-American studies

In 1906, a white woman was brutally raped in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ed Johnson, a black man, was working at his restaurant job when the attack happened but was arrested and charged with the crime. When his lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution and that stay was granted, local folks, led by officials, took the law into their own hands. In a history-changing move, the lynch mob faced federal legal repercussions. Ed Johnson cleared of the rape charges 100 years later. You can read the review of a “Contempt of Court” here.

Continue reading Rabid Reader’s Book List for Human Rights Day 2016

Biography, Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, History, Interviews, LGBT, Literature, Memoir, Nonfiction Reviews, Specials

Abuse, Child Abuse, Civil Rights, Civil Rights Era, culture & society, human rights, Human Rights Day, Human Rights Day 2016, political science, politics, religion

1963: Year of Hope and Hostility by Reverend Byron Williams

Publication Date: July 28, 2013

1963 was a key year in the Civil Rights Movement. Rev. Williams highlights events and personalities of the day that may not have seemed connected in his book but contributed to the advance toward equality.

Continue reading 1963: Year of Hope and Hostility by Reverend Byron Williams

History, Nonfiction Reviews

Civil Rights, Civil Rights Era, dr. martin luther king jr, george wallace, history, human rights, Human Rights Day, JFK, John F Kennedy, medgar evers, segregation

The Clock of Life by Nancy Klann-Moren

Publication Date: November 12, 2012

The Clock of Life by Nancy Klann-Moren is a coming-of-age story that takes place in the 1970s and 1980s. Jason Lee Rainey’s father was a hero. The senior Rainey was a man who strongly believed in the Civil Rights movement and fought in Vietnam. He died when young Jason Lee was only eight months old. Living in Hadlee, Mississippi with his mother and uncle, Jason Lee must decide despite the anti-black sentiment that lingers if he will pursue a friendship with Samson Johnson. When he meets him at the school the first day, Samson bears the taunts and beatings from the other white children. Over time, Jason Lee learns more about his father, Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement and also that sometimes you have to work to make your world a better place.

Continue reading The Clock of Life by Nancy Klann-Moren

Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, Historical Fiction, Southern Fiction

1970s, 1980s, Civil Rights, Civil Rights Era, coming of age, Nancy Klann-Moren, racism, southern fiction, Vietnam

Have No Shame by Melissa Foster

Publication Date: May 6, 2013

Allison Tillman finds the body of a black man while out for a walk. Even for the late 60s, Forrest Town, Arkansas is behind the times when it comes to the Civil Rights Movement and Allison knows that his death happened at the hands of white men from her town. Finding the body changes her life and causes her to look at people and events around her in a new way. She can no longer live with the way blacks are treated as lesser, disposable beings. Allison’s difficulty is that she’s engaged to a man who makes a sport out of beating people simply based on the color of their skin. Her much beloved Daddy, who she’d never want to disappoint, tells her to know her place. Her sister didn’t know her place and was sent to New York. Will Allison keep her feelings inside as her mother has or will she speak out like her sister, Maggie? Will she marry Jimmy Lee and what about Jackson Johns, the young black officer who fills in for his brother on the Tillman farm to whom she feels an undeniable attraction?

Continue reading Have No Shame by Melissa Foster

Contemporary, Fiction Reviews, Southern Fiction

Civil Rights, Civil Rights Era, Melissa Foster

Rabid Reader's Reviews

Book Reviews from a Reader for Readers

Tag: Civil Rights Era

Arkansas Summer by Anne Moose

Rabid Reader’s Book List for Human Rights Day 2016

1963: Year of Hope and Hostility by Reverend Byron Williams

The Clock of Life by Nancy Klann-Moren

Have No Shame by Melissa Foster