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Praying for Sheetrock

A Work of Nonfiction

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
Finalist for the 1991 National Book Award and a New York Times Notable book, Praying for Sheetrock is the story of McIntosh County, a small, isolated, and lovely place on the flowery coast of Georgia—and a county where, in the 1970s, the white sheriff still wielded all the power, controlling everything and everybody. Somehow the sweeping changes of the civil rights movement managed to bypass McIntosh entirely. It took one uneducated, unemployed black man, Thurnell Alston, to challenge the sheriff and his courthouse gang—and to change the way of life in this community forever. "An inspiring and absorbing account of the struggle for human dignity and racial equality" (Coretta Scott King)
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 2, 1991
      As the first black commissioner of McIntosh County, Ga., retired boilermaker Thurnell Alston brought the civil rights struggle to a coastal backwater in the 1970s. He initiated voting rights lawsuits, fought drugs and introduced medical clinics, plumbing and running water to ``a forgotten county needy in every way.'' A threat to corrupt Sheriff Tom Popell, who ruled the county as his fiefdom, Alston challeged the ``good old boy'' patronage system. But the irascible commissioner became increasingly distanced from his constituency and, after his youngest son's tragic death in 1983, he neglected his wife and children in escapist pursuits. The target of a government sting operation, he was convicted of drug conspiracy charges in 1988 and sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison camp, where he remains. By turns inspiring and sad, his story is told with dramatic skill by Atlanta journalist Greene. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; author tour.

    • Library Journal

      October 15, 1991
      It's hard to believe that this powerful story of the political awakening of the black community in McIntosh County, Georgia took place in the 1970s. Untouched by the civil rights movement, this isolated rural county was long dominated by a renegade sheriff until a series of events resulted in the election of Thurnell Alston as the first black county commissioner since Reconstruction. Greene's use of the actual words of county residents adds an air of truth that cannot be denied. This book needs to be read by everyone who does not know the deep South and by those who think all of our racial problems were corrected in the 1960s. Young adults of all races would find this more enlightening than many history books. For most collections. --John W. King, Univ. of Mary land Libs., College Park

      Copyright 1991 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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