LeeAnn G. Reynolds. Maintaining Segregation

In Maintaining Segregation, LeeAnn G. Reynolds explores two essential questions regarding the system of segregation in the South: first, how southern communities, black and white, conditioned children to fit into a racialized environment; and second, how that conditioning broke down, leading to the overthrow of the system. Maintaining Segregation is well written, clearly argued, and deeply thought provoking. That said, it suffers from serious flaws: in sources, omissions, and perspective. Reynolds breaks down the era of segregation into three periods: formation (late 1800s to 1920), maintenance (1920 to 1955), and defense (1955 to the late 1960s). The key distinguishing point among the three is the method by which white southerners maintained segregation: in the first and last periods, through violence, and in the middle—her focus—by “preventing conscious examination and public discussion of the system” (5). Reynolds acknowledges that her middle period was not without its violence, but insists that a “culture of silence . . . played a primary role in maintaining segregation” (5).

Aesthetics · Art · Period (music) · Perspective (graphical) · Silence · Sociology · Visual arts · White (mutation) · American History and Culture · Gender Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies