| Won Over: Reflections of a Federal Judge on His Journey from Jim Crow Mississippi Contributor(s): Alsup, William (Author), Henderson, Thelton (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 1588383423 ISBN-13: 9781588383426 Publisher: NewSouth Books OUR PRICE: $25.16 Product Type: Hardcover Published: March 2019 * Not available - Not in print at this time * |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Lawyers & Judges - History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv) - Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2018031632 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6" W x 9" (1.00 lbs) 250 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - South |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: What was it like growing up white in Mississippi as the civil rights movement exploded in the 1950s and '60s? How did some white children reconcile the decency and fairness taught by their parents with the indecency and unfairness of the Mississippi "Way of Life," the euphemism applied to Jim Crow segregation? Won Over examines these questions as it traces the life journey of United States District Judge William Alsup, born in Mississippi in 1945 to hard-working parents who believed in segregation but also in fairness and decency. Therein lay the struggle at the core of the human predicament in the South. Alsup's memoir recounts the influences that drew the author from traditional Southern attitudes toward a color-blind ideal. Those influences included his older sister, Willanna, his closest circle of friends, a charismatic mentor in college, and the moral force of the civil rights movement. Won Over recalls some of his steps along that journey--a counterprotest to a John Birch Society billboard calling for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren; a personal meeting with the brother of slain leader Medgar Evers to convey condolences; a letter to the editor of the statewide paper on behalf of his circle of friends declaring "We are for civil rights for Negroes"; a successful 1966 challenge to a statewide ban on "controversial" speakers on college campuses, used to prevent blacks from being invited to speak; and a visit to a Chicago church to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak against housing and employment discrimination. |
Contributor Bio(s): Alsup, William: - Judge William Alsup was born in Mississippi in 1945 and attended state-segregated white public schools until his junior year at Mississippi State University. The first African American student would enroll in the college that year, marking the author's first experience in an integrated school. Alsup was accepted to Harvard University in 1967, which led him to move from his home state for the first time. At Harvard, Alsup earned a law degree and a master's in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government. In 1971-1972, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, working on the abortion cases and the "Trees Have Standing" case. Alsup then returned to Mississippi, where he practiced civil rights law before eventually relocating to California as a trial lawyer. In 1999, he was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the Senate as a United States District Judge in San Francisco. He has presided over a number of high-profile trials, with more than two hundred of his opinions being reprinted in official legal reporters. He is also the author of Such a Landscape! and Missing in the Minarets. Alsup is married with two children and two grandchildren. |