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This first-hand account tells the story of turbulent civil rights era Atlanta through the eyes of a white upper-class woman who became an outspoken advocate for integration and racial equality

As a privileged white woman who grew up in segregated Atlanta, Sara Mitchell Parsons was an unlikely candidate to become a civil rights agitator. After all, her only contacts with blacks were with those who helped raise her and those who later helped raise her children. As a young woman, she followed the conventional path expected of her, becoming the dutiful wife of a conservative husband, going to the country club, and playing bridge. But unlike many of her peers, Parsons harbored an increasing uneasiness about racial segregation.
 
In a memoir that includes candid diary excerpts, Parsons chronicles her moral awakening. With little support from her husband, she runs for the Atlanta Board of Education on a quietly integrationist platform and, once elected, becomes increasingly outspoken about inequitable school conditions and the slow pace of integration. Her activities bring her into contact with such civil rights leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife, Coretta Scott King. For a time, she leads a dual existence, sometimes traveling the great psychic distance from an NAACP meeting on Auburn Avenue to an all-white party in upscale Buckhead. She eventually drops her ladies' clubs, and her deepening involvement in the civil rights movement costs Parsons many friends as well as her first marriage.
 

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. pp. i-viii
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. ix-x
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  1. Foreword
  2. David J. Garrow
  3. pp. xi-xxii
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  1. Introduction
  2. pp. xxiii-xxviii
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  1. 1. Growing Up Southern
  2. pp. 1-13
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  1. 2. From Buckhead to Brotherhood
  2. pp. 14-36
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  1. 3. Running Scared for Public Office
  2. pp. 37-52
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  1. 4. Crisis in the Bible Belt
  2. pp. 53-72
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  1. 5. "Men Don't Like Women on Boards"
  2. pp. 73-90
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  1. 6. Sunday Morning at Ebenezer
  2. pp. 91-99
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  1. 7. Not the Best of Times
  2. pp. 100-117
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  1. 8. From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights
  2. pp. 118-128
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  1. 9. The Second Time Around
  2. pp. 129-140
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  1. 10. Long Journey to a New Life
  2. pp. 141-163
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  1. 11. The Dove Flies On
  2. pp. 164-173
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  1. 12. What Has Happened to the Dream?
  2. pp. 174-180
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 181-184
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