
The Best of Enemies
Race and Redemption in the New South
Osha Gray Davidson(Author)
The University of North Carolina Press
Published on 27. August 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-8078-5869-1 (ISBN)
Description
C. P. Ellis grew up in the poor white section of Durham, North Carolina, and as a young man joined the Ku Klux Klan. Ann Atwater, a single mother from the poor black part of town, quit her job as a household domestic to join the civil rights fight. During the 1960s, as the country struggled with the explosive issue of race, Atwater and Ellis met on opposite sides of the public school integration issue. Their encounters were charged with hatred and suspicion. In an amazing set of transformations, however, each of them came to see how the other had been exploited by the South's rigid power structure, and they forged a friendship that flourished against a backdrop of unrelenting bigotry. Rich with details about the rhythms of daily life in the mid-twentieth-century South, ""The Best of Enemies"" offers a vivid portrait of a relationship that defied all odds. By placing this very personal story into broader context, Osha Gray Davidson demonstrates that race is intimately tied to issues of class, and that cooperation is possible - even in the most divisive situations - when people begin to listen to one another.
Reviews / Votes
"A brilliant beginning for understanding the South's many poor sons and daughters, black and white." - The Dallas Morning News"More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Chapel Hill
United States
Edition type
New edition
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8078-5869-1 (9780807858691)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Osha Gray Davidson is a journalist and author of four other books, including The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef and Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control.