An Unutterable Separation in the American Century

Andrew M. Manis

A history of race relations in Macon, Georgia

A longitudinal study of race relations in a major southern city, Macon Black and White examines the ways white and black Maconites interacted over the course of the entire twentieth century. Beginning in the 1890s, in what has been called the "nadir of race relations in America," Andrew M. Manis traces the arduous journey toward racial equality in the heart of Central Georgia. The book describes how, despite incremental progress toward that goal, segrega-tionist pressures sought to silence voices for change on both sides of the color line.

Providing a snapshot of black-white relations for every decade of the twentieth century, this compellingly written story highlights the ways indigenous develop-ments in Macon combined with other statewide, regional, and national factors to shape the struggle for and against racial equality. Manis shows how both African- Americans and a cadre of white moderates, separately and at timestogether, gradually increased pressure for change in a conservative Georgia city. Showcasing how disfranchisement, lynching, interracial efforts toward the humanization of segregation, the world wars, and the Civil Rights Movement affected the pace of change, Manis describes the eventual rise of a black polit-ical class and the election of Macon's first African-American mayor. The book uses demographic realities as well as the perspectives of black and white Maconites to paint a portrait of contemporary black-white relations in the city. Manis concludes with suggestions on how the city might continue the struggle for racial justice and overcome the "unutterable separation" that still plagues Macon in the early years of a new century. Macon Black and White is a pow-erful story that no one interested in racial change over time can afford to miss.

Andrew M. Manis is assistant professor of history, Macon State College. He is the author or editor of four books, all dealing with religion and race relations: Southern Civil Religions in Conflict: Civil Rights and the Culture Wars, Birmingham Revolutionaries: Fred Shuttlesworth and the AlabamaChristian Movement for Human Rights, and A Fire You Can’t Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham’s Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, which won a number of prizes including the 2000 Lillian Smith Book Award.

Titles of Related Interest

Southern Civil Religions in Conflict: Civil Rights and the Culture Wars

Frustrated Fellowship: The Black Quest for Social Power

Walking Integrity: Benjamin Elijah Mays, Mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Southern History

304 pages, 6 x 9

978-0-86554-761-2

$45.00s., Cloth

Index, bibliography

illustrated

MUP/H573

Southern History

304 pages, 6 x 9

978-0-86554-958-6

$20.00t, Paper

Index, bibliography

illustrated

MUP/P306