In this Book

  • Scalawag: A White Southerner's Journey through Segregation to Human Rights Activism
  • Book
  • Edward H. Peeples, with Nancy MacLean. Afterword by James H. Hershman Jr.
  • 2014
  • Published by: University of Virginia Press
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summary

Scalawag tells the surprising story of a white working-class boy who became an unlikely civil rights activist. Born in 1935 in Richmond, where he was sent to segregated churches and schools, Ed Peeples was taught the ethos and lore of white supremacy by every adult in his young life. That message came with an equally cruel one—that, as the child of a wage-earning single mother, he was destined for failure.

But by age nineteen Peeples became what the whites in his world called a "traitor to the race." Pushed by a lone teacher to think critically, Peeples found his way to the black freedom struggle and began a long life of activism. He challenged racism in his U.S. Navy unit and engaged in sit-ins and community organizing. Later, as a university professor, he agitated for good jobs, health care, and decent housing for all, pushed for the creation of African American studies courses at his university, and worked toward equal treatment for women, prison reform, and more. Peeples did most of his human rights work in his native Virginia, and his story reveals how institutional racism pervaded the Upper South as much as the Deep South.

Covering fifty years' participation in the long civil rights movement, Peeples’s gripping story brings to life an unsung activist culture to which countless forgotten individuals contributed, over time expanding their commitment from civil rights to other causes. This engrossing, witty tale of escape from what once seemed certain fate invites readers to reflect on how moral courage can transform a life.

Table of Contents

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  1. Title Page, Copyright Page
  2. pp. i-viii
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. ix-x
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  1. Preface
  2. pp. xi-xii
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  1. Introduction
  2. Nancy MacLean
  3. pp. xiii-xxiii
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  1. Part One: Learning Whiteness
  1. 1: The Arrival of Another Birthright Segregationist
  2. pp. 3-11
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  1. 2: Learning God’s Primary Colors
  2. pp. 12-18
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  1. 3: Boys Will Be Boys
  2. pp. 19-25
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  1. 4: Out of the Family Tempest
  2. pp. 26-31
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  1. 5: Receiving My Class Assignment in High School
  2. pp. 32-36
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  1. Part Two: Encountering a New World
  1. 6: The Hillbilly Blues
  2. pp. 39-43
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  1. 7: Dr. Alice Recruits Another Justice Seeker
  2. pp. 44-50
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  1. 8: Boot Camp for Human Rights
  2. pp. 51-61
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  1. 9: Some Shipmates Are More Equal than Others
  2. pp. 62-68
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  1. Part Three: Battling the Hydra
  1. 10: Reconnecting with the Struggle on the Home Front
  2. pp. 71-76
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  1. 11: Sit- ins Come to the Old Capitol of the Confederacy
  2. pp. 77-85
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  1. 12: “They Closed Our Schools”
  2. pp. 86-93
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  1. 13: The Bridge over the Mason- Dixon Line
  2. pp. 94-103
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  1. 14: A New Career and Maybe a New Virginia?
  2. pp. 104-119
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  1. 15: Communists, Sex Fiends, and Half- Breeds Take the Struggle to Appalachia
  2. pp. 120-135
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  1. 16: Confronting the Racism of the“Baron” of Kentucky Basketball
  2. pp. 136-140
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  1. Part Four: Combating Old Injustices in New Finery
  1. 17: An Activist Professor in a New University in the Old Capital of the Confederacy
  2. pp. 143-151
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  1. 18: If the Hurricane Don’t Blow You Away,the Government Will
  2. pp. 152-159
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  1. 19: Guilty of Pushing Racial Justice Too Fast
  2. pp. 160-166
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  1. 20: New Human Rights Struggles in the Era of Stealth Racism
  2. pp. 167-182
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  1. Epilogue: Finally a Kinsman with Whom I Am Not a Stranger
  2. pp. 183-192
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  1. Afterword
  2. James H. Hershman Jr.
  3. pp. 193-200
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. 201-204
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  1. Further Reading onVirginia Civil Rights History
  2. pp. 205-208
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 209-218
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  1. Images
  2. pp. 219-230
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