A White Minority in Post-Civil Rights Mississippi.

A White Minority in Post-Civil Rights Mississippi. By Thomas Adams Upchurch. (Lanham, Md., and other cities: Hamilton Books, 2005. Pp. x, 80. Paper, $18.00, ISBN 0-7618-2962-8.) Thomas Adams Upchurch, now an assistant professor of history at East Georgia College, grew up and attended newly integrated schools in Holmes County, Mississippi, a predominately African American area. Born in 1964, Upchurch, who is white, was educated in the public school system in the 1970s and 1980s. In A White Minority in Post-Civil Rights Mississippi, he writes candidly of his evolving feelings about race based on his often unpleasant interactions with black students in an environment where he and other whites were in the minority. His story continues with working life in factories after high school--venues in which he was still a minority--and with his religious awakening. Eventually, exposure to a wider world eradicated the racism he had acquired through encounters with schoolmates and others in his hometown. This short book is written in accessible and informal language. It will be of value to anyone interested in grassroots anecdotal experiences during the early days of school integration in the South. [CAROLYN EARLE BILLINGSLEY, Alexander, Ark.]