Southern Journey

More than twenty years after the civil rights movement, one question still lingers: What significant changes, if any, have resulted from its efforts? In search of the answer, author Tom Dent takes us on a unique journey through the contemporary South, revisiting the places where protesters and their supporters took a stand for equality. Dent interviews blacks, whites, civil rights workers, and just plain folks about the sit-ins, student demonstrations, and protests that shaped the Movement. In their own word, the participants discuss the impressions these events left on their communities. Dent's journey becomes a personal one as well, as he examines the role the Movement has played in his own life. Raised "a black youth in New Orleans one generation before the legal obstructions that delineated racial segregation in the South were dismantled piece by piece," he was encouraged by his family to seek his fortune outside the South but soon returned home. Using these smaller towns - "more interesting, more resistant to change, more reflective of the South as a region" than their larger counterparts - Dent demonstrates how the civil rights movement continues to make a positive impact on people's lives, today, but also learns that the goal of equality hasn't been fully achieved.