WHITE LAWYER, BLACK POWER

In a disquieting and timely memoir, civil rights lawyer and activist Jelinek recounts candidly his experiences in the South, from 1965, when he arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, to work for the ACLU, until 1968, when he left for California to rethink his future. Intending to stay in Mississippi for only three weeks, Jelinek experienced what he calls “the ‘Mississippi High’: the intoxication felt by white middle class civil rights workers who suddenly found themselves thrust into the idealism of the civil rights cause.” Warmly welcomed by sharecroppers and the activist community, he was shocked by the racism and corruption among judges, lawyers, and all-White juries, and he recalls in chilling detail many instances of personal and professional peril. During the time Jelinek spent in the South, the civil rights community began to split between those who believed in slow, incremental change and those who advocated taking to the streets. “Militant Black Pride philosophy spread” after Stokely Carmichael—a man the author came to admire and respect—delivered his Black Power speech, drowning out “the sweet multi-racial sentiments of civil rights anthems,” and inciting “harsh separatist rhetoric.” In 1966, when Jelinek moved to Selma to head an ACLU office, he found deep rivalries: “[A] racial scorecard was needed to track all the players: Black v. Black, White v. White, Black v. White, SNCC v. SCLC and Sheriff Jim Clark’s people against just about everyone.” Finally, after being fired by the ACLU for tactics the organization deemed unprofessional, Jelinek founded the Southern Rural Research Project, focused solely on providing food to hungry, malnourished Black families. After he returned to California, he felt a profound loss of purpose and camaraderie until he found a like-minded community in the Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

A sharply etched memoir of the struggle for civil rights.