| Edition |
1st ed. |
| Description |
1 online resource (xvii, 228 pages) : illustrations, map |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-222) and index. |
| Summary |
The son of black sharecroppers, John Oliver Hodges attended segregated schools in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the 1950s and & rsquo;60s, worked in plantation cotton fields, and eventually left the region to earn multiple degrees and become a tenured university professor. Both poignant and thought provoking, Delta Fragments is Hodges & rsquo;s autobiographical journey back to the land of his birth. Brimming with vivid memories of family life, childhood friendships, the quest for knowledge, and the often brutal injustices of the Jim Crow South, it also offers an insightful meditation on the present state of race relations in America. Hodges has structured the book as a series of brief but revealing vignettes grouped into two main sections. In part 1, & ldquo;Learning, & rdquo; he introduces us to the town of Greenwood and to his parents, sister, and myriad aunts, uncles, cousins, teachers, and schoolmates. He tells stories of growing up on a plantation, dancing in smoky juke joints, playing sandlot football and baseball, journeying to the West Coast as a nineteen-year-old to meet the biological father he never knew while growing up, and leaving family and friends to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta. In part 2, & ldquo;Reflecting, & rdquo; he connects his firsthand experience with broader themes: the civil rights movement, Delta blues, black folkways, gambling in Mississippi, the vital role of religion in the African American community, and the perplexing problems of poverty, crime, and an underfunded educational system that still challenge black and white citizens of the Delta. Whether recalling the assassination of Medgar Evers (whom he knew personally), the dynamism of an African American church service, or the joys of reconnecting with old friends at a biennial class reunion, Hodges writes with a rare combination of humor, compassion, and & mdash;when describing the injustices that were all too frequently inflicted on him andhis contemporaries & mdash;righteous anger. But his ultimate goal, he contends, is not to close doors but to open them: to inspire dialogue, to start a conversation, & ldquo;to be provocative without being insistent or definitive. & rdquo; Recently retired, John O. Hodges was an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he was also the chair of African and African American Studies from 1997 to 2002. His articles have appeared in the CLA Journal, the Langston Hughes Review, Soundings, and The Southern Quarterly. |
| Contents |
Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I: Learning; The Delta; The Wilsons; The Hodgeses; My Mother; My Sister; My Stepfather; Whittington Plantation; Settlement Time; One-Room Schoolhouse; G Street Boys; Schoolmates; My Teachers; Going to the 'House; Part II: Reflecting; Delta Blues; Gambling on the River; Black Ways and Other Folkways; African Gods in Mississippi; A Delta Revival; The Black Church; The Black Preacher; The Folk Sermon; Is God Good?; The Color Line; Emmett Till; Ruleville Revisited: Reflections Fifty Years After Marius; Civil Rights; Medgar; 1963. |
|
Endesha: A New Walk for FreedomWhites in the Struggle; Reunion as Pilgrimage; Epilogue: The Delta Then and Now; Appendix 1: Table of Black and White Persons in theDelta by Population, Education, and Income; Appendix 2: Reports Relating to 1962 Civil RightsActivities in Which Author Was Involved; Selected Bibliography; Index. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Hodges, John Oliver, 1944- -- Childhood and youth.
|
|
Hodges, John Oliver, 1944- |
|
Hodges, John Oliver, 1944- |
|
African Americans -- Mississippi -- Delta (Region) -- Biography.
|
|
African Americans. |
|
Mississippi -- Delta (Region) |
| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
|
| Subject |
Delta (Miss. : Region) -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
|
|
Delta (Miss. : Region) -- Biography.
|
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
|
Autobiographies.
|
|
Autobiographies.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Hodges, John Oliver, 1944- Delta fragments. 1st ed. Knoxville : The University of Tennessee Press, [2013] 9781572335707 (DLC) 2012046687 (OCoLC)822028637 |
| ISBN |
9781621900337 (electronic book) |
|
1621900339 (electronic book) |
|
9781572335707 |
|
157233570X |
|
