Rating: 
Summary: "The Shadow of Dark Hangs Over Them..."
Review: "Sons of Mississippi" illuminates Charles Moore's photograph of a group of Mississippi sheriffs gathered at the University of Mississippi prior to the admission of its first black student James Meredith in 1962. A subtext is how the story of the murder of Emmett Till reverberates to this day in Mississippi. Hendrickson spins his narrative from interviews, research of documents from the era, and literature about the time and place. Most compelling are his interviews with the sons and grandsons of the sheriffs and with Meredith's son Joe, probing their psyches as it relates to their experiences with race and racism. Near the end of the book on page 291, the author Paul Hendrickson quotes Mark Strand on Edward Hopper's paintings: "The shadow of dark hangs over them, making whatever narratives we construct around them seem sentimental and beside the point." Here he critiques his own contribution by advising the reader that although he has spun a story around a compelling photograph, he understands that the power of the photo, the shadow of dark that hangs over it, is more profound than the fascinating narrative he has attached to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Mississippi smoldering
Review: "That's the way the erasure of the past tends to work, by selective memory and willed amnesia and the wearing away of time. And yet there are always some folks around who are willing to remember things whole."
Paul Hendrickson's book asks an impertinent question, really--"When did you stop being a bigot?" He took one of Charles Moore's remarkable Life magazine photographs, taken the week before James Meredith registered at the University of Mississippi in 1962, and went looking for the people depicted, two of whom are still alive. It's a photo of six Mississippi sheriffs and one deputy, standing sociably in a group, getting ready to defend the Ole Miss against the entrance of Meredith; one of them is preparing armbands, and one is wielding a stick.
The warmth and courtesy with which Hendrickson is received are truly remarkable. He drives around the state showing people the Life magazine photo, and spends hours discussing 'that civil rights mess' with the two surviving sheriffs and their kin; over and over, they let him in, and fix him some dinner. He looks into newspaper archives, and tracks down James Meredith and his sons, one of whom takes a graduate degree from Ole Miss in almost total privacy (until Hendrickson comes along).
I think these people welcome Hendrickson because he sincerely wants to understand how Mississippi's racial past has settled into its present; it's a compelling question of sin and sorrow, of good and evil, and the dailiness thereof. He's frequently surprised, both by what they say and by how he reacts to it. I am moved especially by Ira Harkey, a newspaperman who was driven out of the state for his moderate editorial stance, who gently remonstrates with Hendrickson for demonizing Harkey's old foes. To call them simply bigots, or cowards, is to miss the human story.
Rating:
Summary: Mississippi smoldering
Review: "That's the way the erasure of the past tends to work, by selective memory and willed amnesia and the wearing away of time. And yet there are always some folks around who are willing to remember things whole."
Paul Hendrickson's book asks an impertinent question, really--"When did you stop being a bigot?" He took one of Charles Moore's remarkable Life magazine photographs, taken the week before James Meredith registered at the University of Mississippi in 1962, and went looking for the people depicted, two of whom are still alive. It's a photo of six Mississippi sheriffs and one deputy, standing sociably in a group, getting ready to defend the Ole Miss against the entrance of Meredith; one of them is preparing armbands, and one is wielding a stick.
The warmth and courtesy with which Hendrickson is received are truly remarkable. He drives around the state showing people the Life magazine photo, and spends hours discussing 'that civil rights mess' with the two surviving sheriffs and their kin; over and over, they let him in, and fix him some dinner. He looks into newspaper archives, and tracks down James Meredith and his sons, one of whom takes a graduate degree from Ole Miss in almost total privacy (until Hendrickson comes along).
I think these people welcome Hendrickson because he sincerely wants to understand how Mississippi's racial past has settled into its present; it's a compelling question of sin and sorrow, of good and evil, and the dailiness thereof. He's frequently surprised, both by what they say and by how he reacts to it. I am moved especially by Ira Harkey, a newspaperman who was driven out of the state for his moderate editorial stance, who gently remonstrates with Hendrickson for demonizing Harkey's old foes. To call them simply bigots, or cowards, is to miss the human story.
Rating: 
Summary: 320 page book is 300 pages too long
Review: Another Southern-bashing book which adds nothing to what has been said before and does it in a stultifyingly boring way. The author grotesquely over-interprets and old photograph and just goes on and on and on about it long after its significance has been wrung dry. Contains sentences like, "In Mississippi everything had changed, but nothing had changed." How profound. Rambles on about the children and grandchildren of those in the photo to no apparent purpose. A favorite liberal Northerners' critique of poor Southern whites is that they clung to their slightly elevated rung on the social status ladder by putting down blacks and saying, "Well, at least I'm not Black." The author clings to his identity by putting down all the Southerners he meets and saying, "Well, at least I'm not a racist" without the slightest sense of irony or self-awareness. A tedious and unenlightening book, even worse that his overly partisan biography of Robert McNamara. I want my money back!!
Rating:
Summary: A moving book
Review: As a newcomer to the US, I am perhaps more aware of the role of race here than I am in the UK. However, despite living here 2 years, was still at a loss a loss as to its' origins and why it occured here.
This book helped me see the American "South" in a new light. Gone are my perceptions that large sections of the old confederate south are your typical "KKK style bigots", but it has been replaced with a recognition that the racism that the African-American community experienced may well still be there.
Sure the burning crosses are gone but the "racism of the mind", the unspoken racism that most people are too ashamed to raise but which must still be presents among some, both in the North and in the South, is still very much alive and well in the US.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not Enlightening
Review: As a Southerner, I read with interest this account of the integration of Ole Miss University and the legacies of the man who integrated it (James Meredith) and those who tried to stop him (among them, seven white sheriffs photographed by Charles Moore for Life Magazine). Hendrickson has thoroughly researched the events leading up to Meredith's first day at Ole Miss - the lynchings, the riots and the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering - and this section makes for a compelling read. However, the author's attempt later in the book to decipher some meaning from the lives of the sons and grandsons of a few of the participants falls short. He did not ask his subjects the right questions - he simply skimmed the surface - perhaps he was afraid to risk their anger? Likewise, he rarely interviewed any of the wives of the participants. Others have commented on Hendrickson's "south bashing." Certainly, he is patronizing to a few of those he meets; he describes one sheriff's grandson as never having gone to a symphony or the theatre as though these things were the markers of intellect. Still, I am not sure it this is "anti-south" or just the cultural elitism of a Washington Post writer. Hendrickson's writing is lively, but at many times sticky and way too precious. I'd recommend the first half as an interesting read on the events at Ole Miss. Skip the rest, unless you want to learn about the daily life and views of your car mechanic, bus driver, home depot salesman, grad student or next-door-neighbor. Trust me, these people exist all over the country, not just in the South, and they're just not that interesting.
Rating:
Summary: The Past and the Present in One Book
Review: Author Paul Hendrickson has written a very well researched book on racism in Mississippi while concentrating on seven Mississippi sheriffs photographed on the campus of the University of Mississippi during the fall of 1962 when James Meredith was to be enrolled at the University. The author spends Part One of the book painting very unflattering portraits of the bigoted men in the picture. Part Two emphasizes the past and present life of James Meredith who appears to be somewhat difficult to understand. As one of Meredith's sons says in Part Three, "My father has an overwhelming need to be famous and so will do whatever he thinks will provide that and get him attention--Jesse Helms, David Duke, you name it, even if it's only for a day...I'll call it his eccentric philosophy. This is my theory. He does these things--almost as a kind of offensive strike to throw you off...For instance, supporting David Duke. Why in hell would you even support a racist like David Duke if you're James Meredith? Well, maybe he knows he's going to get all these articles and letters about that, condemning him. And that somehow gives him the energy to do what he wants to do next."
In addition to speaking to Meredith's children in Part Three, the author also visits two of the sheriffs in the picture that were alive at the time (one died shortly after) in addition to some of their children and grandchildren. A number of these offspring are working in law enforcement or in other jobs in which they must relate with fellow workers who are African Americans.
The book is slightly more than 300 pages long. Part Three may have told me a little more than I cared to know about the lives of the descendants of the bigoted sheriffs pictured on the cover of the book. I guess we can say these men were a product of their time, and their descendants have become more enlightened through the passage of time. Bigotry is a learned behavior and through the passage of the generations progress can continue to be made.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Hendrickson does it again; superb author's latest success brilliantly captures the reader, taking them deeper and deeper into a historical photograph. Wonderfully written, this book also offers incredible insight into the dark history of Mississippi. I write this review to offer just praise and also to refute the rediculous negative comments also found in this review section, clearly these must be the words of a southern biggot, the very people Hendrickson exposes. Buyers: Look this book up in any valid, reliable literary source to see that the intellectuals agree with me. This book is a winner!
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and well-written
Review: Hendrickson has written an outstanding book-one which does much to explain the roots and structure of racism in American society. As his starting point, Hendrickson uses a photograph of several Southern sheriffs posing with a billy club just days before the riots at the U/Mississippi in 1962. Henrickson then explores the lives of these men and their descendants in the New South. To claim that the book is "southern bashing" is grossly inaccurate. Hendrickson explores and speaks with many Southerners-and in doing so, he points out the differences in experience (there is no one Southern experience). Hendrickson also explores the different ways in which people of similar backgrounds reacted to the Civil Rights Movement (he looks at white southerners who supported the Civil Rights Movement as well as those who disdained the movement-proving that southerners had many options and that not all white southerners are the bigots which we Northerners traditionally associate with the South).
I was especially struck by the great job he does of demonstrating the love which many African-American Mississippians have for their state (there is sometimes a tendency to see those who define themselves as Southerners or Mississippians as primarily white men-but the conflicted and tortured feelings which many African Americans have about their state, its beauty and its past are an important component of the state's history and present). The saddest aspect of the book for me is the tendency of most Mississippians to glorify and distort their past. Mississippians have an incredible past-and one they can be proud of-if we are talking about Faulkner, Wright, Welty, the rise of the Civil Rights Movement (which consisted of blacks and whites) etc. But the tendency of many Mississippians to glorify the plantation past or even the supposedly more innocent eras of the 1930s and 1940s (when blacks were forced to step off of sidewalks when passing whites, when they lived in constant fear of lynchings etc.) is really troubling. Southerners need to confront their past (ironically, the Germans have done a better job of doing this)-until they honestly do this, there can be little hope that they can move forward. Some of the individuals in the book seemed to be making an honest attempt to think about and confront the uglier aspects of their state's past and this was really moving. However, the tendency of many others to brush aside the past was troubling. Overall, I strongly recommend this book-it is well-written and incredibly thought-provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Thinking of Home
Review: Hendrickson takes a moment (frozen in a photograph on the eve of James Meridith's entry into Ole Miss in 1962) and builds a universe around it. I recognize the time, the people and the place. As a sixth generation Mississippian who lived through the era of the civil rights movement but then left never to really return, this book takes me home. Mississippi belongs to all of us and in some instinctive way we who are her sons, black and white, love her. The words quoted in this book from James Meridith captured that feeling --- "To me, Mississippi is the most beautiful country in the world in all seasons. In the spring, all is green and fresh, the air is clean and sweet, and everything is healthy ... I feel love because I have always felt that Mississippi belonged to me and one must love what is his." Time and again, Hendrickson took me to familiar places, caused me to laugh and to cry and made me remember "... how often I have lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home."
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