Politics of Southern Equality: Law and Social Change in a Mississippi County
Frederick M. Wirt, "Politics of Southern Equality: Law and Social Change in a Mississippi County"
English | ISBN: 1138530379 | 2017 | 345 pages | EPUB | 3 MB
English | ISBN: 1138530379 | 2017 | 345 pages | EPUB | 3 MB
This path-breaking text deals with the effects of federal civil rights legislation on the behavior and attitudes of the inhabitants of a single county in Mississippi–Panola County. These effects are examined in the three civil rights areas of voting, education, and economic opportunities. By using this smaller example, Frederick M. Wirt's broader interest is to show how legislation can be used to effect social change on a large scale.
The need to substitute empirical knowledge for abstract speculation motivates Wirt's study. Wirt restricts his study to one county but with conclusions on comparative studies that illumine the emerging political sociology of the South. The author sketches the historical setting of Panola County, emphasizing on the demographic, economic, and political developments in recent decades. He then examines what has actually happened in race relations as an effect of civil rights laws affecting votes, schools, and jobs.
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