In this Book
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Women: A Memoir
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
- Series: Alabama Fire Ant
An affectionate, humorous account of small town Alabama during the civil rights era.
When Frank Sikora's six-year-old daughter contracted pneumonia in 1962, his wife Millie vowed that would be the last winter she would spend in Ohio. Despite their misgivings about the racial tensions erupting there, they moved their family of six south, where Frank hoped to fulfill his dream of becoming a newspaper reporter. But when those dreams didn't materialize immediately, mounting bills, repossession, and eviction forced them to move in with Millie's parents, Dan and Minnie Belle Helms, in rural Wellington, Alabama.
With even slimmer prospects for employment in impoverished Calhoun County, the Sikoras came to depend heavily upon the Helmses and extended family members and all their lives became closely intertwined. The Helmses were uneducated, unpolished people, but Sikora's narration of his life with them—often humorous but never condescending—provides a compelling portrait of the attitudes and lifestyle of poor whites in Alabama during the second half of the 20th century, just as James Agee's monumental work, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, illuminated the Depression years in Hale County, Alabama. Sikora illustrates how resourceful, southern women, in particular, held their families together through trying times.
Interwoven with this commentary on rural white culture in the Deep South is the story of Sikora's developing career as a newsman. Determined to succeed, he finally lands a job with the Gadsden Times reporting the news of black citizens. From that introduction to journalism, Sikora becomes one of Alabama's most acclaimed chroniclers of the civil rights movement, eventually writing some of the acknowledged masterpieces about the subject. Like his landmark book, Selma, Lord, Selma, Sikora's newest work tells the stories of ordinary Alabamians and their perspectives on extraordinary times.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-vi
- Chapter 10
- pp. 43-45
- Chapter 11
- pp. 46-49
- Chapter 12
- pp. 50-52
- Chapter 13
- pp. 53-56
- Chapter 14
- pp. 57-60
- Chapter 15
- pp. 61-63
- Chapter 16
- pp. 64-66
- Chapter 17
- pp. 67-69
- Chapter 18
- pp. 70-74
- Chapter 19
- pp. 75-77
- Chapter 20
- pp. 78-80
- Chapter 21
- pp. 81-83
- Chapter 22
- pp. 84-86
- Chapter 23
- pp. 87-89
- Chapter 24
- pp. 90-91
- Chapter 25
- pp. 92-94
- Chapter 26
- pp. 95-99
- Chapter 27
- pp. 100-101
- Chapter 28
- pp. 102-104
- Chapter 29
- pp. 105-107
- Chapter 30
- pp. 108-110
- Chapter 31
- pp. 111-115
- Chapter 32
- pp. 116-118
- Chapter 33
- pp. 119-121
- Chapter 34
- pp. 122-124
- Chapter 35
- pp. 125-128
- Chapter 36
- pp. 129-130
- Chapter 37
- pp. 131-136
- Editorial Note
- p. 137