A Moment in Memphis: A Reluctant Southern White Boy Becomes a Civil Rights Lawyer and Goes North - Paperback

by Oliver Fowlkes (Author)

This is the story of a Southern White boy growing up in segregated Mobile and his struggle to escape. In Part One the boy, a newly minted ACLU lawyer in Memphis, encounters racism while seeking to obtain justice for a Black youth beaten by police after Dr. King's assassination in 1968. When threats against his family become oppressive, he flees to the North hoping to carry on his quest for justice. Part Two chronicles his attempts in Massachusetts to address issues of the disenfranchised, poor, people of color, gays, and the mentally challenged. In doing so, he confronts a North that when stripped of liberal patina is as steeped in racism as the South. This memoir is about that boy's journey away from the society in which he grew up and his attempt to atone for guilt by leaving Memphis before his young Black client obtains justice.

Author Biography

OLIVER FOWLKES is an Alabamian transplanted to the North by way of Tennessee. A lawyer whose practice was devoted to civil rights issues, he is also a memoirist and writer of short stories and historical novels. Married with three children and five grandchildren, he lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. He also taught at Hampshire College.