Why read Scalawag?

Book cover of Scalawag: A White Southerner's Journey through Segregation to Human Rights Activism

Book description

Scalawag tells the surprising story of a white working-class boy who became an unlikely civil rights activist. Born in 1935 in Richmond, where he was sent to segregated churches and schools, Ed Peeples was taught the ethos and lore of white supremacy by every adult in his young life. That…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Scalawag as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Clara Silverstein

Author

Raised in a working-class white family in segregated Richmond in the 1930s and 1940s, Peeples grows up to challenge the racism around him. His transformation – how he learned to think critically and become a “traitor to the race” – is both unusual and compelling. He spends the rest of his life fighting for racial equality, first in the U.S. Navy and later at the university where he teaches. His perspective as someone who rejects his upbringing and energetically defends equal treatment for all races, as well as broader human rights, shows how much one individual can do to overcome…

From Clara's list on memoirs from the front lines of standing up to racism.