Discover the spine-chilling stories and local legends of this corner of the American South . . . Includes photos! Mississippi’s Golden Triangle is a major modern hub—but restless spirits of Native Americans, Civil War soldiers, and slaves also wander this region. Tales of a mysterious watchman who patrols the railroad tracks between Artesia and Mayhew haunt curious locals. Ed Kuykendall Sr. is rumored to manage Columbus’s Princess Theater from beyond the grave. A young girl who died while attempting to free her head from a stair banister is said to still walk the halls of Waverly. In this fascinating tour, author Alan Brown uncovers the eerie thrills and chills that are part of local history. “[Alan Brown’s] newest collection of stories involves a couple of places in Monroe County, namely the Gregg-Hamilton House in Aberdeen and the remains of the Gulf Ordnance Plant in Prairie . . . [In the Golden Triangle,] he found plentiful resources of historical information.” —Monroe Journal
In the South, mystery comes heaped with added richness. And in this collection of comfort food for the curious mind, author Alan Brown guides readers into the most delightful medley of mystery the South has on offer. Witches in Tennessee. The devil's hoofprints in North Carolina. Voodoo in New Orleans. In this South, meat rains from the sky in Bath, Kentucky. A professor's thigh makes the case for spontaneous combustion in Nashville. UFO-induced radiation sickness befalls Huffman, Texas. From bluesman Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil in Arkansas to the oak tree that defends the innocence of a man executed in Mobile, sometimes the inexplicable is truly the most satisfying.
Ghost stories from the American South have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! The haunted history of cities across the southeast come to life--even when the main players are dead. Have you heard about the ghosts at the Mayberry Inn in Hot Springs, Arkansas? Their connection to the Inn is so strong--and grisly--they may never check out! Did you know the Springer Opera House in Columbus, Georgia, is haunted by the brother of one of the most infamous men in American history? Do you know the history of the majestic--and haunted--tombs of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, Louisiana? Dive into this spooky chapter book for suspenseful tales of bumps in the night, paranormal investigations, and the unexplained; just be sure to keep the light on.
Taking the Fight South provides a timely and telling reminder of the vigilance democracy requires if racial justice is to be fully realized. Distinguished historian and civil rights activist Howard Ball has written dozens of books during his career, including the landmark biography of Thurgood Marshall, A Defiant Life, and the critically acclaimed Murder in Mississippi, chronicling the Mississippi Burning killings. In Taking the Fight South, arguably his most personal book, Ball focuses on six years, from 1976 to 1982, when, against the advice of friends and colleagues in New York, he and his Jewish family moved from the Bronx to Starkville, Mississippi, where he received a tenured position in the political science department at Mississippi State University. For Ball, his wife, Carol, and their three young daughters, the move represented a leap of faith, ultimately illustrating their deep commitment toward racial justice. Ball, with breathtaking historical authority, narrates the experience of his family as Jewish outsiders in Mississippi, an unfamiliar and dangerous landscape contending with the aftermath of the civil rights struggle. Signs and natives greeted them with a humiliating and frightening message: “No Jews, Negroes, etc., or dogs welcome.” From refereeing football games, coaching soccer, and helping young black girls integrate the segregated Girl Scout troops in Starkville, to life-threatening calls from the KKK in the middle of the night, from his work for the ACLU to his arguments in the press and before a congressional committee for the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Ball takes the reader to a precarious time and place in the history of the South. He was briefly an observer but quickly became an activist, confronting white racists stubbornly holding on to a Jim Crow white supremacist past and fighting to create a more diverse, equitable, and just society. Ball’s story is one of an imitable advocate who didn’t just observe as a passive spectator but interrupted injustice. Taking the Fight South will join the list of required books to read about the Black Lives Matter movement and the history of racism in the United States. The book will also appeal to readers interested in Judaism because of its depiction of anti-Semitism directed toward Starkville’s Jewish community, struggling to survive in the heart of the deep and very fundamentalist Protestant South.
Things that go bump in the night, disembodied voices, footsteps in an empty stairwell, an icy hand on your shoulder ... let your imagination run wild as you read about Texas's most extraordinary apparitions, sinister spooks, and bizarre beasts. You may know of Crazy Man's Tower or San Antonio's haunted railroad crossing, but perhaps you haven't heard about: the White Sanitarium, an abandoned mental institution in Wichita Falls plagued by ghostly forms and spectral noises; the Lady in Green of the McGloin house, who floats persistently over the lake, spurned from unrequited love; and Lake Worth's monster, a mysterious creature inhabiting the area that looks half-human but acts like a feral animal.
