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Title: If White Kids Die: Memories of a Civil Rights Movement Volunteer by Dick J. Reavis ISBN: 1-57441-129-2 Publisher: University of North Texas Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: A Moment in Time
Comment: This book was recommended by a friend who is mentioned in the book. Otherwise I probably would not have bought it. However I found it easy to read and very enlightening. I graduated from high school in 1962 from a small town in the South. Although my path took me a different direction; I was fascinated by Dick Reavis' accounts of his experiences at voter registration in a small Southern town. He is certainly very honest in his portrayal of his contributions to the movement. Learning more about the struggles of the college students and the people in the city where they worked helped me have a better understanding of the issues they were trying to help change. I was very naive back then and quite frankly unaware of some of the restrictions that were imposed on African Americans at that time. Thanks for enlightening me. I intend to do more reading on this important chapter in American history.

Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating, enjoyable memoir
Comment: .... To give an idea of what it's about, here is the start of Reavis's preface:

"I am a white Texas male, now of middle age. Thirty-five years ago, during the summers of 1965 and 1966, I was a civil rights worker in Alabama. My part in what we called the Movement was small. I didn't set policy or appear on TV. I did my time in the ranks, got out when I felt I should, and tried for years, without much success, to put the Movement behind me.

"As the years have passed, I have watched as, in my recollections, I have diminished from hero to martyr to just a kid who was there..."

The book is not a history or essay but a memoir. We follow events as seen by the naïve, idealistic kid Reavis was when he first got to Alabama, and the gradually more seasoned civil rights worker he becomes over the next two summers. Yet the story is told from the distance and maturity of middle age (which strikes a chord with someone also in middle age like myself--one looks back with bittersweet feelings at a time in life when so much seemed possible).

I found the book fascinating as well as fun to read. So much so that I read it cover to cover in one sitting despite other pressing matters.