This Month’s Book is a Must Read for Southern Studies Scholars

Learning and education are integral parts of the Alluvial Collective’s mission. What better way to educate ourselves than via a good read? With that in mind, we launched a monthly book giveaway recommending books that inspire us to discuss and reflect.

This month’s book is “Just Trying to Have School: The Struggle for Desegregation in Mississippi” by Natalie G. Adams and James H. Adams.

Click here to enter by January 23.

From the Publisher:

Based on meticulous archival research and oral history interviews with over one hundred parents, teachers, students, principals, superintendents, community leaders, and school board members, Natalie G. Adams and James H. Adams explore the arduous and complex task of implementing school desegregation. How were bus routes determined? Who lost their position as principal? Who was assigned to what classes?

Without losing sight of the important macro forces in precipitating social change, the authors shift attention to how the daily work of “just trying to have school” helped shape the contours of school desegregation in communities still living with the decisions made fifty years ago.