In this Book
- A New Day in the Delta: Inventing School Desegregation As You Go
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
summary
Explores Mississippi’s school desegregation from the viewpoint of a white teacher
A New Day in the Delta is a fresh and appealing memoir of the experience of a young white college graduate in need of a job as the Vietnam War reached its zenith. David Beckwith applied and was accepted for a teaching position in the Mississippi Delta in the summer of 1969. Although it seemed to him a bit strange that he was accepted so quickly for this job while his other applications went nowhere, he was grateful for the opportunity. Beckwith reported for work to learn that he was to be assigned to an all-black school as the first step in Mississippi’s long-deferred school desegregation.
The nation and Mississippi alike were being transformed by war and evolving racial relations, and Beckwith found himself on the cutting edge of the transformation of American education and society in one of the most resistant (and poor) corners of the country. Beckwith’s revealing and often amusing story of the year of mutual incomprehension between an inexperienced white teacher and a classroom full of black children who had had minimal contact with any whites. This is history as it was experienced by those who were thrust into another sort of “front line.”
A New Day in the Delta is a fresh and appealing memoir of the experience of a young white college graduate in need of a job as the Vietnam War reached its zenith. David Beckwith applied and was accepted for a teaching position in the Mississippi Delta in the summer of 1969. Although it seemed to him a bit strange that he was accepted so quickly for this job while his other applications went nowhere, he was grateful for the opportunity. Beckwith reported for work to learn that he was to be assigned to an all-black school as the first step in Mississippi’s long-deferred school desegregation.
The nation and Mississippi alike were being transformed by war and evolving racial relations, and Beckwith found himself on the cutting edge of the transformation of American education and society in one of the most resistant (and poor) corners of the country. Beckwith’s revealing and often amusing story of the year of mutual incomprehension between an inexperienced white teacher and a classroom full of black children who had had minimal contact with any whites. This is history as it was experienced by those who were thrust into another sort of “front line.”
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Cover Page
- p. 1
- Title Page
- pp. 2-5
- Acknowledgments
- pp. v-vi
- Introduction
- pp. 1-4
- Chapter 10
- pp. 75-80
- Chapter 11
- pp. 81-84
- Chapter 12
- pp. 85-91
- Chapter 13
- pp. 92-98
- Chapter 14
- pp. 99-105
- Chapter 15
- pp. 106-111
- Chapter 16
- pp. 112-116
- Chapter 17
- pp. 117-122
- Chapter 18
- pp. 123-132
- Chapter 19
- pp. 133-142
- Chapter 20
- pp. 143-147
- Chapter 21
- pp. 148-152
- Chapter 22
- pp. 153-157
- Chapter 23
- pp. 158-163
- Chapter 24
- pp. 164-174
- Chapter 25
- pp. 175-180
- Chapter 26
- pp. 181-189
- Chapter 27
- pp. 190-195
- Chapter 28
- pp. 196-203
- Chapter 29
- pp. 204-207
- Chapter 30
- pp. 208-214
- Chapter 31
- pp. 215-225
- Chapter 32
- pp. 226-233
- Chapter 33
- pp. 234-240
- Chapter 34
- pp. 241-247
- Chapter 35
- pp. 248-253
- Chapter 36
- pp. 254-258
- Chapter 37
- pp. 259-265
- Chapter 38
- pp. 266-270
Additional Information
ISBN
9780817381103
Related ISBN(s)
9780817316334, 9780817360528
MARC Record
OCLC
823738564
Pages
292
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2008