Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: This book is wonderfully written and fantastic as a history of a small town in North Carolina, the Civil Rights movement, and American attitudes about race. It is written with sensitivity to both sides who were engaged: one in a struggle for equality, the other in a struggle to maintain what they considered their heritage. It does not demonize anyone, but grapples with the history of where we have been and consequently where we are going.
Even if you've never cared about race, equality and Civil Rights, you will find this book well worth your time in its exploration of the complex web of relationships that make up and sometimes pull apart an American community.
Rating:
Summary: The Strength of What's Left Unsaid
Review: This book is written with an economy of style and provides an important exploration of the human condition. You will carry many of the episodes in the book around with you long after you've read it. This book carries such a potent message that it should be compulsive reading for all.
The author's strength is what he leaves unsaid. In recounting events without invasive opinions, he offers a candid, sometimes brutal and relatively balanced book on what kind of life a black really lived in a place where racial hatred ran so deep. The results are incredible, heart-wrenching, and deeply disturbing. It inspires self-questioning. It made me wonder: if one can only learn of oneself by how he reacts to others and others react to him, then surely as other's perceptions of him change in reponse to a superficial outward characteristic such as skin color, his inward sense or perception of self must also change, thus altering the essence of his soul and the nature of his self knowledge.
This profound book offers insight that is not lessened by time. It poses questions about society, social groupings and appearances, and ultimately, how the fragile soul can be damaged or altered as a result of the reactions to the body it occupies. After all, does one's soul have a color?
Rating:
Summary: The making of a man committed to peace and justice
Review: This extremely well-written memoir/nonfiction book about a horrible, racially motivated killing in N. Carolina illustrates the author's coming of age in the American South. As a professor in African-American history, the book is grounded in thorough research and historical context. I was even impressed by bibliography at the end of the book. This man has done his research and documented it well.Tyson not only writes about the tragic event that changed his life (and the history of his hometown) when he was 10, but he also shares some of the history of the Black Freedom movement and the history of his own family, and the way it has affected him throughout his life. What I thought was particularly interesting was how the U.S. has sanitized the history of the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in particular. When he was killed, Ronald Reagan actually had the gall to imply that he brought it on himself because of his lack of respect for law and order, and he accused the anti-war protestors for the assasination! I was particularly touched by the stories about Tyson's amazing parents and feisty relatives, and others who stood up for justice and compassion. Tyson also writes openly about his angst and struggles to come to grips with his own prejudices. I will recommend this book to everyone I know--I believe that it's a book that every American needs to read, to better understand the history of race relations in this country and how far we have yet to go.
| 
