The Rise of Massive Resistance: Race and Politics in the South During the 1950's

Originally published in 1969, The Rise of Massive Resistance was the first scholarly work to deal decisively with the politics of southern resistance to public school integration. Today, it remains one of the most important books on the subject. For this thirtieth anniversary edition, Numan Bartley has included a new preface in which he reflects on his reasons for writing the book and why it has stood the test of time.

Bartley gives a step-by-step account of opposition to school desegregation in each southern state during the 1950s and clarifies the attitudes underlying massive resistance by examining the roles played by such southern leaders as James F. Byrnes, Harry Flood Byrd, James O. Eastland, Orval E. Faubus, Claude Pepper, Estes Kefauver, Richard B. Russell, Herman Talmadge, "Big Jim" Folsom, and Earl K. Long. He also closely analyzes the attitudes of the Eisenhower administration and national leaders toward the South and explores the activities of the Citizens' Councils, the Ku Klux Klan, and other local groups that emerged to defend "the southern way of life." His closing "Critical Essay on Authorities" still forms an excellent guide to primary and secondary sources on opposition to Brown v. Board of Education.

Author: Numan V. Bartley
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 07/01/1999
Pages: 390
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.24lbs
Size: 8.94h x 6.00w x 0.86d
ISBN: 9780807124192

About the Author
Numan V. Bartley is E. Merton Coulter Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Georgia. A former president of the Southern Historical Association, he is the author of many works on the South, most recently The New South, 1945-1980.