Life and Death in the Delta

Terrorism, black poverty, and economic exploitation produced a condition of collective trauma and social suffering for thousands of black Deltans in the Twentieth Century. Based on oral histories with African American activists and community leaders, this work reveals the impact of that oppression.

"A rich study of African American lives and struggles as seen through the eyes of people who lived through the terror of white supremacy, the hopes for a better future raised by the Civil Rights Movement, the temporary empowerment that came through participation in antipoverty initiatives such as Head Start, and the disillusionment that resulted when black elected officials proved unable (or unwilling) to address effectively the region's social and economic problems." - The Journal of African American History"Kim Lacy Rogers has been a moving force in the US and international oral history movement for years, and her work on the history and memory of the Civil Rights movement has gained her universal respect. This book is a work of first-class scholarship, deep sensitivity, clear and effective writing: oral history and social conscience at its best. It will be essential reading for a long time." - Alessandro Portelli, prize-winning author of The Order Has Been Carried Out"Kim Lacy Rogers makes a major contribution to understanding social suffering. She uses narrative as a hinge connecting the personal to the social, telling a story that is moving, dark, and unforgettable." - Arthur W. Frank, author of The Wounded Storyteller and The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live and Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Calgary.

"Life and Death in the Delta is a stunning collective memoir of African American life in the twentieth century Mississippi Delta. Through oral histories, Kim Lacy Rogers provides us with an important account of the struggles and triumphs of grassroots activists and of the forces that shaped their lives. These are stories of suffering and resilience in the face of overwhelming poverty, illness, terror, and oppression, and they remind us of the sacrifice and courage that produced the civil rights movement. But these tales of sorrow and uplift also caution against an overly triumphal narrative of the civil rights struggle, providing us with a sobering reminder of how much more remains to be done in the struggle for freedom in the USA." - Nan Elizabeth Woodruff, author of American Congo: The African American

KIM LACY ROGERS is Professor of History and American Studies at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, USA. She is author of Righteous Lives: Narratives of the New Orleans Civil Rights Movement.