Bitter Harvest : Richmond Flowers and the Civil Rights Revolution.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Bitter Harvest traces the development of Richmond Flowers, a color politician who began his career as a segregationist but who, as Attorney General of Alabama, fought bitterly against Governor George Wallace in trying to support the Constitution. In the process, he sacrificed his political career.

Flowers was elected Attorney General in 1962. A likable storyteller who had served in the state senate, Flowers came into office promising like the rest to send the Yankees a message. He did not seem the stuff of which heroes (or martyrs) are made. But faced with the choice of upholding the law or of taking the popular course, he chose to uphold the law. Events thereafter made him a central figure in the most violent years of the civil rights revolution.

The book sets this story against the background of the Southern war against civil rights, a savage contest motivated by hatred and fear. It advances the thesis that during this period, Alabama suffered a fundamental failure in leadership which determined the state's response to the demand for social change. Alabama's leaders encourage lawlessness with their statements and actions. They took the state down a self-destructive course which has had lasting and damaging consequences.

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Library Journal Review

Writing for a general audience, Hayman, a retired college teacher and author, focuses on Richard Flowers's political career, especially as Alabama attorney general (1962-66), in relation to the Civil Rrights movement. Hayman concentrates on three major themes. First, the Civil Rights movement is central to post-World War II Southern history. Second, the movement morally challenged Flowers and other politically moderate white Southerners to overcome racial segregation. And third, despite the support of Flowers and others for racial justice, a failure in civic leadership occurred when many Alabama politicians encouraged racial violence. From his extensive interviews with Flowers, along with accounts from newspapers and other sources, including the works of highly acclaimed historians like C. Vann Woodward, Hayman presents an interesting biography that critically assesses one white Southerner who took a stand against white supremacy. Recommended for public and academic libraries.‘Charles L. Lumpkins, Bloomsburg Univ. Lib., Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.