3701. Speak Now Against the Day The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South, by John Egerton (read 18 Feb 2003) When I read this book I said: I am euphoric over how much I enjoyed this book, especially the final part. The author considers the civil rights movement from FDR's election in 1932 till May 17, 1954, the day Brown v. Board of Education was handed down. This is a stupendous book and while at times I felt much was treading well-trodden ground, and at times the account of the efforts of groups seeking to end segregation was overly heavy in discussing individuals of little present force, the book reads effortlessly and pleasantly. Egerton was born in Atlanta in 1935, but grew up in Cadiz, Tripp County, Kentucky, and occasionally he tells what he was doing and thinking--a nice touch which I appreciated. Some of the Book recalled my reading of Simple Justice by Kluger but most of the book is before that book. (I did note a few minor errors: Huey Long was elected Senator in 1930, so it is wrong to say (on page 16) that he rode into the Senate on FDR's coattails. On page 32 "Joining them after the 1932 election would be Huey Long, James F. Byrnes, John H. Bankhead..." All three were elected to the Senate in 1930, NOT 1932. On page 56 it is stated that Tom Connolly took part in the 1922 filibuster against the anti-lynching bill, but he did not enter the Senate till 1929. On page 80 it is stated that Tom Watson "held sway" in the Senate when FDR was Assistant Secretary of the Navy but Watson did not enter the Senate till 1921 and FDR was not Assistant Secretary any more then. On page 105 it is stated that there was only one black Representative until "after World War II" but Adam Clayton Powell entered Congress on Jan 4, 1945--when World War II was still going on. Herman Talmadge did not "defeat" Walter George. as is stated on page 581--George did not run for re-election in 1956.) Egerton quotes Faulkner: "We speak now against the day when our Southern people who will resist to the last these inevitable changes in social relations, will, when they have been forced to accept what they at one time might have accepted with dignity and good will, will say: 'Why didn't someone tell us this before? Tell us this in time?'" ( )