My Soul Is Rested
Encyclopedia
My Soul Is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered is a book of oral history
regarding the American Civil Rights Movement by journalist Howell Raines
. It is based on interviews with people involved in — for and against — the struggle to end racial segregation in the American South from the time of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott
to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
from his office window, he pondered recent indications that Watson's dream of a Southern politics that did not pander to racial hatred might be at hand. He felt that the story of sacrifice and courage that had led to these changes needed to be more completely told by the people who lived it.
As a journalist in Atlanta, Raines already had access to members of the movement who had since become prominent politicians in the South. As he conducted interviews he obtained from the interviewees names and contact information for others who should be included. His southern heritage also helped to obtain interviews with people who had fought racial desegregation.
All but two of the interviews included were expressly conducted for this book between October 1974 and April 1976. The interview with Autherine Lucy
was conducted by Culpepper Clark, a historian at the University of Alabama. The material from Martin Luther King, Sr.
was excerpted from in interview conducted by the author for a television program on PBS station KETV
in Atlanta.
The book took nineteen months to complete. In the meantime Raines had left the Constitution to work on it. By the time it was published he had become the political editor at the St. Petersburg Times
.
reviewed the book for the New York Times in October 1977. He summarized his personal reaction to the book as follows: "Every so often a book is so touching, so exhilirating that one laughs and murmurs and cries out while reading, wanting to tell others about it. My Soul Is Rested is like that." While discussing the impact of the book, he wrote: "Indeed, the power of My Soul Is Rested lies in part in its recalling for us what the South was like when the Movement started. Nowadays, when the problems of race relations are more complicated both morally and legally, too many people forget the cruelties that blacks have suffered in this country."
After the book was published Raines heard from friends in Atlanta and the American Southeast that they were having difficulties obtaining copies of the book. He later learned through Charles Haslam, president of the American Booksellers Association, that G.P. Putnam's regional salesman for the Southeast was making negative presentations of the book with racial overtones. Raines began to pursue the issue with Rich's
department store, a major book distributor in Atlanta. Rich's chief book buyer, Faith Brunson, said that they would order only a few copies of the book because people were not interested in it except for Julian Bond and a few of those people. In a 1978 interview with Bill Cutler, Raines speculated that the buyers at Rich's may have held personal antipathy to the subject matter of the book, as one of the major sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement had occurred at Rich's, which was then defending segregation.
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
regarding the American Civil Rights Movement by journalist Howell Raines
Howell Raines
Howell Hiram Raines was Executive Editor of The New York Times from 2001 until he left in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal. He is the father of Jeff Raines, one of the founding members of the rock band Galactic...
. It is based on interviews with people involved in — for and against — the struggle to end racial segregation in the American South from the time of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many important figures in the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott,...
to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
Author's notes
Raines began his research for this book while the political editor for the Atlanta Constitution. In February 1974, while looking at a statue of Georgian populist Thomas E. WatsonThomas E. Watson
Thomas Edward "Tom" Watson was an American politician, newspaper editor, and writer from Georgia. In the 1890s Watson championed poor farmers as a leader of the Populist Party, articulating an agrarian political viewpoint while attacking business, bankers, railroads, Democratic President Grover...
from his office window, he pondered recent indications that Watson's dream of a Southern politics that did not pander to racial hatred might be at hand. He felt that the story of sacrifice and courage that had led to these changes needed to be more completely told by the people who lived it.
As a journalist in Atlanta, Raines already had access to members of the movement who had since become prominent politicians in the South. As he conducted interviews he obtained from the interviewees names and contact information for others who should be included. His southern heritage also helped to obtain interviews with people who had fought racial desegregation.
All but two of the interviews included were expressly conducted for this book between October 1974 and April 1976. The interview with Autherine Lucy
Autherine Lucy
Autherine Juanita Lucy was the first black student to attend the University of Alabama, in 1956.She was born on October 5, 1929 in Shiloh, Alabama and graduated from Linden Academy in 1947....
was conducted by Culpepper Clark, a historian at the University of Alabama. The material from Martin Luther King, Sr.
Martin Luther King, Sr.
Martin Luther King, Sr., born Michael King was a Baptist missionary, an advocate for equal justice and an early civil rights leader. He was also the father of Martin Luther King, Jr.King, Sr...
was excerpted from in interview conducted by the author for a television program on PBS station KETV
KETV
KETV, digital channel 20 , is the ABC affiliate television station in Omaha, Nebraska and is owned by Hearst Television...
in Atlanta.
The book took nineteen months to complete. In the meantime Raines had left the Constitution to work on it. By the time it was published he had become the political editor at the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
.
Interviewees included
- Ralph AbernathyRalph AbernathyRalph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following King's assassination, Dr. Abernathy took up the leadership of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign and...
- T. M. Alexander, Sr.
- Ben Allen
- Harry Alston
- Wilson Baker
- Marion BarryMarion BarryMarion Shepilov Barry, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995...
- Nelson Benton
- Randolph BlackwellRandolph BlackwellRandolph T. Blackwell was a veteran of the African-American civil rights movement, serving in Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, amongst other organizations...
- Willie Bolden
- Julian BondJulian BondHorace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
- Harry Bowie
- Helen Bullard
- John Calhoun
- Charles Cobb
- Stoney Cooks
- Dorothy Cotton
- Constance W. Curry
- Dave Dennis
- Ivanhoe Donaldson
- Andrew Durgan
- Glenn V. Evans
- James L. Farmer, Jr.James L. Farmer, Jr.James Leonard Farmer, Jr. was a civil rights activist and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was the initiator and organizer of the 1961 Freedom Ride, which eventually led to the desegregation of inter-state transportation in the United States.In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee...
- Autherine Lucy FosterAutherine LucyAutherine Juanita Lucy was the first black student to attend the University of Alabama, in 1956.She was born on October 5, 1929 in Shiloh, Alabama and graduated from Linden Academy in 1947....
- Ed Gardner
- Dick GregoryDick GregoryRichard Claxton "Dick" Gregory is an American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur....
- Lawrence GuyotLawrence GuyotLawrence Guyot born July 17, 1939 in Pass Christian, Mississippi) is a civil rights activist who was the head of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party from 1964....
- Leon Hall
- Fannie Lou HamerFannie Lou HamerFannie Lou Hamer was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader....
- Roy Harris
- Tony Heffernan
- Wendell Hoffman
- Hamilton E. HolmesHamilton E. HolmesHamilton E. Holmes was an American orthopedic physician. He and Charlayne Hunter-Gault were the first two African-American students admitted to the University of Georgia. Additionally, Holmes was the first African-American student to attend the Emory University School of Medicine, where he...
- Myles HortonMyles HortonMyles Horton was an American educator, socialist and cofounder of the Highlander Folk School, famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement . Horton taught and heavily influenced most of the era's leaders. They included Dr...
- William Bradford HuieWilliam Bradford HuieWilliam Bradford "Bill" Huie was an American journalist, editor, publisher, television interviewer, screenwriter, lecturer, and novelist.-Biography:...
- Ruby Hurley
- Herbert JenkinsHerbert JenkinsHerbert Turner Jenkins was the longest serving police chief of Atlanta.- Early life :He was an automotive pioneer in Atlanta, working at its earliest car dealership.That experience led to his last book.- Policing :...
- Timothy Jenkins
- J. T. Johnson
- Mary Dora Jones
- Vivian Malone JonesVivian Malone JonesVivian Juanita Malone Jones was an African-American woman, one of the first two African Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963 and was made famous when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked them from enrolling at the all-white university.-University of Alabama:On June 11, 1963,...
- Nicholas KatzenbachNicholas KatzenbachNicholas deBelleville Katzenbach is an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.-Early life:...
- Lonnie King
- Martin Luther King, Sr.Martin Luther King, Sr.Martin Luther King, Sr., born Michael King was a Baptist missionary, an advocate for equal justice and an early civil rights leader. He was also the father of Martin Luther King, Jr.King, Sr...
- John Lewis
- Everette Little
- Joseph LoweryJoseph LoweryJoseph Echols Lowery is a minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the American civil rights movement. He later became the third president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his immediate successor, Rev. Dr...
- Andrew Marrisett
- Yancy Martin
- Neil Maxwell
- Benjamin MaysBenjamin MaysBenjamin Elijah Mays was an American minister, educator, scholar, social activist and the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia from 1940 to 1967. Mays was also a significant mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr...
- Franklin McCain
- Chris McNair
- Amzie MooreAmzie MooreAmzie Moore was an African American, civil rights leader, and entrepreneur in the Mississippi Delta.-Early life:Moore was born on the Wilkin plantation near the Grenada and Carroll County lines...
- Chuck Morgan
- Edgar NixonEdgar NixonEdgar Daniel Nixon was an African American civil rights leader and union organizer who played a crucial role in organizing the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Nixon also led the Montgomery branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union, known as the Pullman Porters...
- Rosa ParksRosa ParksRosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
- Eugene Patterson
- John Malcolm PattersonJohn Malcolm PattersonJohn Malcolm Patterson is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Alabama, from 1959 to 1963. Previously he served as State Attorney General ....
- Robert Patterson
- Laurie Pritchett
- Bayard RustinBayard RustinBayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation , Rustin practiced nonviolence...
- Rita Samuels
- Bobby Shelton
- Arthur ShoresArthur ShoresArthur Davis Shores was an American civil rights attorney who was considered Alabama's "drum major for justice".-Education:...
- Fred ShuttlesworthFred ShuttlesworthReverend Fred Shuttlesworth, born Freddie Lee Robinson, was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama...
- Charles R. Sims
- Claude SittonClaude SittonClaude Fox Sitton is a retired American newspaper reporter and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He covered the civil rights movement for The New York Times during the 1950s and 1960s, eventually becoming the paper's national editor...
- Sidney Smyer
- J. B. StonerJ. B. StonerJesse Benjamin "J.B." Stoner was an American segregationist who was convicted in 1980 of the bombing in 1958 of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.J. B...
- Tol Tepper
- Hank Thomas
- Hartman Turnbow
- Albert Turner
- Elbert TuttleElbert TuttleElbert Parr Tuttle , one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a liberal Republican from Georgia, was chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1960 to 1967, when that court became known for a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of African-Americans...
- Richard ValerianiRichard ValereaniRichard Valeriani was White House correspondent and diplomatic correspondent with NBC News in the 1960s and 1970s.He previously covered the civil rights movement for the network and was seriously injured when hit with an ax handle at a demonstration in Marion, Alabama in 1965 in which Jimmie Lee...
- Nannie Washburn
- Sheyann WebbSheyann WebbDr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Smallest Freedom Fighter" and co-author of the book, Selma, Lord, Selma. As a nine year old, Sheyann Webb-Christburg took part in the first attempted Selma to Montgomery march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday.Sheyann was born on...
- Hosea WilliamsHosea WilliamsHosea Lorenzo Williams was a United States civil rights leader, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist and politician...
- Abraham Wood
- Andrew YoungAndrew YoungAndrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
Reception
Columnist Anthony LewisAnthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis is a prominent liberal intellectual, writing for The New York Times op-ed page and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. He was previously a columnist for the Times . Before that he was London bureau chief , Washington, D.C...
reviewed the book for the New York Times in October 1977. He summarized his personal reaction to the book as follows: "Every so often a book is so touching, so exhilirating that one laughs and murmurs and cries out while reading, wanting to tell others about it. My Soul Is Rested is like that." While discussing the impact of the book, he wrote: "Indeed, the power of My Soul Is Rested lies in part in its recalling for us what the South was like when the Movement started. Nowadays, when the problems of race relations are more complicated both morally and legally, too many people forget the cruelties that blacks have suffered in this country."
After the book was published Raines heard from friends in Atlanta and the American Southeast that they were having difficulties obtaining copies of the book. He later learned through Charles Haslam, president of the American Booksellers Association, that G.P. Putnam's regional salesman for the Southeast was making negative presentations of the book with racial overtones. Raines began to pursue the issue with Rich's
Rich's
Rich's was a department store retail chain, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that operated in the southern U.S. from 1867 until March 6, 2005 when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's...
department store, a major book distributor in Atlanta. Rich's chief book buyer, Faith Brunson, said that they would order only a few copies of the book because people were not interested in it except for Julian Bond and a few of those people. In a 1978 interview with Bill Cutler, Raines speculated that the buyers at Rich's may have held personal antipathy to the subject matter of the book, as one of the major sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement had occurred at Rich's, which was then defending segregation.
Sources
- Cutler, Bill. "'My Soul Is Rested' Stirs Unrest in Marketing". Southern Changes, The Journal of the Southern Regional Council, 1878-2003. (Vol. 1, No. 2, 1978, pp. 16–18. (Retrieved 12 August 2009)
- Lewis, Anthony. "The Right to Have a Coke". New York Times, 23 October 1977, p BR2. (Retrieved 12 August 2009 from ProQuest Historical Newspapers, The New York Times (1857–Current file), Document ID 121557492.)
- Raines, Howell. My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977.