We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns

by Tracy, Sugarman

• ISBN13: 9780815609384
• ISBN10: 0815609388
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-01
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr

Summary

So I want to talk about racism. I want to talk about Mississippi. I want to talk about events I observed that turned into history. I want to talk about black people who didn't know white people and white people who didn't know black people but who shared a season of time, a long, hot summer that some people now think of as mythic. But it wasn't mythic. Myths are populated by people who are bigger than life. I want to talk about people I met a long time ago in Mississippi who were not bigger than life, just more curious than some, more loving than some, more enlightened than some, more vulnerable than some, more lucky than some. I drew their pictures when they were younger and I was younger, and I wrote their stories in Stranger at the Gates more than forty years ago. I still want to talk about them. Those conversations were never finished. Those sketches were sketches, not a finished portrait. For me, Mississippi remains a remarkable work in progress." -from the Prologue Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. xi
Prologue	p. xv
Introduction	p. xix
The Long, Hot Summer, 1964
Charles McLaurin	p. 3
Oxford	p. 7
The Delta	p. 26
Goodman, Schwerner, Chaney	p. 32
The Lindseys	p. 40
Blacks, Whites, and Whites	p. 52
Drew	p. 56
Freedom School	p. 72
Fannie Lou Hamer	p. 81
Drawing Conclusions	p. 86
Indianola	p. 91
The Civil Rights Bill	p. 99
Birth of a Party	p. 102
Return to the Delta
June 1965	p. 113
Return to the Lindseys	p. 119
Durrough	p. 126
Richard	p. 132
Linda	p. 136
Cephus	p. 142
Marguerite	p. 147
Liz	p. 151
Farewell to the Lindseys	p. 157
Farewell to the Delta	p. 162
The Roads from the Delta
Legacy	p. 167
My Road	p. 170
Batte Lindsey	p. 172
June Johnson	p. 175
L. C. Dorsey	p. 181
Charlie Cobb	p. 183
Martha Honey	p. 192
Owen Brooks	p. 195
Leslie McLemore	p. 197
In Memoriam	p. 199
Linda Davis	p. 202
John Lewis	p. 210
Nonviolence	p. 214
Julian Bond	p. 221
Mississippi, October 2001
Mississippi Redux	p. 231
Return to Ruleville	p. 235
Jack Harper	p. 252
Losing the Children	p. 255
The Story to Tell	p. 264
Young Power	p. 266
Standing on Shoulders	p. 269
Long Time Passing	p. 275
Dale Gronemeier	p. 277
Len Edwards	p. 280
Fortieth Reunion, 2004	p. 284
Jim Dann	p. 287
John Harris	p. 293
Liz Fusco	p. 300
Chris Hexter	p. 307
Unsettling Memories	p. 314
Crossing the Highway	p. 318
Not a Stranger	p. 330
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