THE SUMMER THAT DIDN'T END - THE STORY OF THE MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT OF 1964 AND ITS CHALLENGE TO THE FUTURE OF AMERICA
Book Details + Condition: William Morrow and Company (New York). First Edition, 1965. Hardcover with dust jacket. 351 pages. Inscribed and signed on the front free endpaper. The inscription reads: "To my Ben and Jerry, whose love has sustained me through the seasons of crisis. Len Holt, May 1965". Holt was active in the Civil Rights movement, working as a field secretary for CORE. A member of the National Lawyers Guild, Holt served as a defender for protestors arrested for their participation in civil rights demonstrations throughout the South. He authored two books in the 1960s about his experiences in the South during the Civil Rights movement, The Summer That Didn't End and An Act of Conscience. From the Introduction: "While in Mississippi in June, as the world became aware of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964, several of us expressed concern about the obsession of the newsmen with the hundreds of beatings, shootings and jailings and the more than a dozen murders. Our concern was that the violence would be dwelt upon to the exclusion of the positive achievements of the Summer Project and the message of Mississippi that needs to be heard everywhere - whose matters which prevented the horrors from being in vain."
Firm binding; minor shelf wear; slight lean to book; interior is clean and free of markings, save Len Holt's inscription and signature to the ffep. Original dust jacket has normal aging and wear, and retains its original price.
