Witness to change : from Jim Crow to political empowerment

Resource Information

The work Witness to change : from Jim Crow to political empowerment represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

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Label

Witness to change : from Jim Crow to political empowerment

Title remainder

from Jim Crow to political empowerment

Statement of responsibility

by Sybil Haydel Morial ; foreword by Ambassador Andrew Young

Creator

• trueMorial, Sybil Haydel

Author

• trueMorial, Sybil Haydel

Subject

• trueAfrican American mayors
• trueAfrican American mayors -- Biography
• African American mayors -- Louisiana | New Orleans -- Biography
• trueAfrican American women political activists
• African American women political activists -- Biography
• African American women political activists -- Louisiana | New Orleans -- Biography
• African Americans -- Civil rights
• African Americans -- Civil rights -- Louisiana | New Orleans -- History -- 20th century
• Morial, Ernest N
• Morial, Sybil Haydel
• Morial, Sybil Haydel -- Family
• New Orleans (La.) -- Biography
• New Orleans (La.) -- Race relations | History -- 20th century
• trueNew Orleans, Louisiana -- Race relations
• truePoliticians' spouses
• truePoliticians' spouses -- Biography
• Politicians' spouses -- Louisiana | New Orleans -- Biography
• trueRace relations
• trueSocial change
• Social change -- Louisiana | New Orleans -- History -- 20th century
• trueAfrican American civil rights

Genre

• trueBiography

Language

eng

Summary

"In 1950s New Orleans, a young woman steps into her white tulle gown and glides down the long hallway of her parents' house into the front garden. Her father, a respected surgeon, drives her downtown, where she will make her debut into Negro society. Though mesmerized by the rituals, Sybil Haydel, 17, cannot help but note their irony in a world where she daily faces the barriers and insults of Jim Crow. Thirteen years later, Sybil lies sleepless in bed next to her husband, Dutch Morial. Medgar Evers, the NAACP's national leader, has just been murdered in Mississippi. Dutch, the organization's New Orleans' president, has just received another chilling death threat. In halting whispers, the couple discusses how to protect their three young children. The Morials first become legal, then political, activists. Testing Brown v. Board of Education, Sybil attempts to enroll at Tulane and Loyola. She and Dutch challenge a statute restricting political activities of public school teachers. Barred from the League of Women Voters, Sybil forms an organization to help register Negroes held back from voting. After serving as judge and Louisiana legislator, Dutch is elected New Orleans' first Black mayor. Sybil's memoir reveals a woman whose intelligence overrides the clichés of racial division. In its pages, we catch rare glimpses of Black professionals in an earlier New Orleans, when races, though socially isolated, lived side by side; when social connections helped to circumvent Jim Crow; when African-American culture forged New Orleans--and American--identity. Through loving eyes, Sybil traces the rise of her sons and daughters: After Dutch's death, Marc Morial, serves two terms as New Orleans mayor"--Provided by publisher

Tone

• trueInspiring

Writing style

• trueCompelling

Biography type

autobiography

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

• 976.3/35063092
• B

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction