Paperback Exchange Wednesday

Paperback Book Swap at the Library

Wednesday, March 2nd (week 9)

Trade a paperback book for the chance to "dress down.”

Students, faculty & staff that donate a book to the Sullivan-Lexington library on March 2nd will earn the privilege of bypassing the customary Wednesday professional-dress requirement. Donated books benefit the library's free paperback swap, which offers light reading materials to the university community.

No Justice

Two authors illuminate how little justice African Americans received from the U.S. court system in the decades following the Civil War.

In this captivating true story, The Day Freedom Died, Mr. Lane tells about the horrific events that happened on Easter Sunday in Colfax, LA, in 1873 and the subsequent legal battles that ensued. In an attempt to defend the legitimate officeholders for the parish, between 50-80 African American men were brutally murdered by a mob of white men. The case against the murderers went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but those who committed the massacre were acquitted and never punished for their actions.

In another equally disturbing title Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903, Mr. Goldstone details how the U.S. Supreme Court, through its decisions on specific cases and laws, failed to uphold the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The case that involved the massacre in Colfax, LA, is covered in the book along with more well-known cases like Plessy vs. Ferguson. The author also discusses the impact that the Supreme Court’s decisions had on African Americans living in the South during this period.

Both of these titles can be found in the Sullivan University Library and Learning Resource Center, and a librarian will be glad to assist you in finding them. Click on the title of the book to find book reviews and other information.

The Day Freedom Died; 976.367 L265d

Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903; 342.7308 G624i

Civil Rights and a Teenager's Camera

In Margaret McMullan’s Sources of Light, a young lady named Samantha (aka Sam) uses a camera that her mom’s boyfriend gives her to create a visual portrait of life in Mississippi in 1962-1963. Sam and her mother are white, but, because of their support of the civil rights movement, they are threatened and attacked by those who oppose equal rights for African-Americans. The author touches on other themes besides civil rights, including single-parenthood, war, and coming-of-age relationships, and she weaves them in beautifully. Her characters and their reactions to their circumstances ring true because she grew up in Mississippi during the time in which the story is set.

This isn’t an easy book to read, but those who are interested in the civil rights movement or life in the South during the 1960s may want to borrow it from the library. It can be found in the library by looking for the call number JF M. If you want more information about the book or to read other reviews of it, click here to be taken to the library’s catalog entry. Please don’t hesitate to ask one of the librarians for help in locating the book or the catalog record. We will be glad to assist you.

Black History Month

The Sullivan Library and Learning Resource Center commemorates Black History Month with a book display featuring items from our collection. Please feel free to speak with one of the librarians if you want to check out one of the books on display, if you want more information about Black History Month, or if you want to find other books about African-Americans in our collection.

Here are links to some websites that focus on African American history.

Black History Month (Library of Congress)

The Black Past

Civil Rights Research Guide

From Slavery to Civil Rights: A Timeline

The March from Selma

Marching to Freedom: Linking Literature to Primary Resources

Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination

Check the blog in a few days to learn more about Black History Month.