Weaving national narratives from stories of the daily lives and familiar
places of local residents, Francoise Hamlin chronicles the slow struggle
for black freedom through the history of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hamlin
paints a full picture of the town over fifty years, recognizing the
accomplishments of its diverse African American community and strong
NAACP branch, and examining the extreme brutality of entrenched power
there. The Clarksdale story defies triumphant narratives of dramatic
change, and presents instead a layered, contentious, untidy, and often
disappointingly unresolved civil rights movement.
Following the black freedom struggle in Clarksdale from World War II
through the first decade of the twenty-first century allows Hamlin to
tell multiple, interwoven stories about the town's people, their
choices, and the extent of political change. She shows how members of
civil rights organizations--especially local leaders Vera Pigee and
Aaron Henry--worked to challenge Jim Crow through fights against
inequality, police brutality, segregation, and, later, economic
injustice. With Clarksdale still at a crossroads today, Hamlin explores
how to evaluate success when poverty and inequality persist.