The Shame of Southern Politics--Essays and Speeches (review)

In the South, the voice of the white civil rights leadership has been scattered, muted, and relegated to civic environments where all sides of an issue are expressed in one place and in one time. Needless to say, the record of the civil rights movement on the national level and the regional level bears little accounting of the white perspective on the African American experience in gaining equity in civic matters. The liberal tradition in America is celebrated by many of the nation's scholars who trumpeted equity as a national anthem. The collected essays and speeches of Leslie Dunbar address one overarching theme—southern politics has wretchedly served all southern people, from then (Civil War) down to now.

Throughout the 12 essays and speeches, Dunbar sustains four main themes: (1) the races of men can live together in equality and mutual respect, (2) southern political leadership has failed its constituency, (3) the success of the civil rights movement is always found in its willingness to fight beyond defeat, and (4) the rhetorical nature of the civil rights movement is central to the nature of the author. For it is in the speeches of the Dunbar story that the reader can sense the inner man and his national legacy to the American liberal tradition.

The Dunbar speeches recorded here seem to provide the clearest voice of Mr. Dunbar at the zenith of his influence in the national and southern conversation about racial equity and power politics. It is suggested that essay no. 11 should be read first, then the speeches, then the dated essays that begin the text if the reader wants to know where things ended before he learns where things began.

Make no mistake about the author and his politics. Mr. Dunbar's The Shame of Southern Politics is an averment for protest rhetorical activity, grassroots movements, and the radical voice in race relations bent on equity in civic and political life. That the University of Kentucky Press published the book is a content footnote to the broadening scholarship of people, politics, and party affiliations in yesterday's and today's South.