The Ballad of Little River : A Tale of Race and Unrest in the Rural South Paperback / softback
by Paul Hemphill
Paperback / softback
Description
A veteran journalist's exploration of a church-burning in south Alabamabecomes a richly rewarding evocation of the Deep South--its land, its people, and its sweat--popping summers. More than an anatomy of a church arson, The Ballad of Little River isa poignant but hard-hitting biography of one of the poorest areas in theUnited States--where deer outnumber people.
A cauldron of unresolved racialand familial conflict, of heat, boredom, gossip, and grudges, Little River, Alabama, gained notoriety in 1997 as the site of the U.S. government'sfirst conviction under a new hate-crimes law intended to stop a rash offires set at black churches around the country. When journalist Paul Hemphill, son of an Alabamatruck driver and veteran writer on the blue-collar South, moved into thearea, he discovered a world that time had virtually forgotten--an obscure, isolated community in the swampy woodlands far from the mainstream of Americanlife, a forlorn cluster of poverty and ignorance and dead-end jobs.
Hemet a stew of heroes and villains right out of fiction--Peanut Ferguson, Doll Boone, Hoss Mack, Joe Dees, Murray January, a Klansman named BrotherPhil, and his stripper wife known as Wild Child--all swirling in a maelstromof history and heat. Originally published in cloth by Free Press, The Ballad of Little River is Hemphill's gripping look at the southernbackwoods, a chilling cautionary tale filled with both kindness and cruelty, told in the steady voice of a master storyteller and one who knows thehuman heart.
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:256 pages
- Publisher:The University of Alabama Press
- Publication Date:18/04/2001
- Category:
- ISBN:9780817311100
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:256 pages
- Publisher:The University of Alabama Press
- Publication Date:18/04/2001
- Category:
- ISBN:9780817311100
