Dixie A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South [Paperback]

In this riveting political and social history of the American South during the second half of the twentieth century, acclaimed journalist Curtis Wilkie tells the story of a region and a man -- himself -- intimately transformed by racial and political upheavals. In 1969, in the wake of the violence surrounding the civil rights movement, Wilkie left the South and vowed never to live there again. But after traveling the world as a reporter, he returned in 1993, drawn by a deep-rooted affinity with the territory of his youth. Here, he endeavors to make sense of the enormous changes that have convulsed the South for more than four decades. Through vivid recollections of landmark events,Dixiebecomes both a striking eyewitness account of history and an unconventional tale of redemption full of beauty, humor, and pathos.Curtis Wilkiewas a national and foreign correspondent forThe Boston Globefor twenty-six years. He has also written for publications includingNewsweekandThe New Republic, and is coauthor, with Jim McDougal, ofArkansas Mischief. A native Mississippian, he lives in New Orleans.Chapter 1

We all knew Beckwiths

The voice sounded faintly menacing, even though he spoke by telephone from hundreds of miles away.

.
At the beginning of our conversation, he used an old Southern pronunciation that fell just short of insult -- nigras -- but within a couple of minutes his manner degenerated. As he talked, the old man became more exercised, and his reedy whine bristled with malevolence. Niggers, he told me, are descendants of the mud people, unworthy of respect. Or life, for that matter.

Then he began ranting about Babylonian Talmudists.

Excuse me?

The Babylonian Talmudists. Don't you know what a Talmudist is?

I think I just figured it out.

Babylonian Talmudists are a set of dogs, he explained. If you read in the King James Version of the Bibllñ