Unloose my heart : a personal reckoning with the twisted roots of my Southern family tree / Marcia Edwina Herman-Giddens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Herman-Giddens, Marcia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women, White--Alabama--Birmingham--Biography.

Women, White.

Civil rights movements--Alabama--Birmingham--History--20th century.

Civil rights movements.

Slaveholders--Southern States--Biography.

Slaveholders.

Families.

Manners and customs.

Race relations.

Herman-Giddens, Marcia.

Herman-Giddens, Marcia--Family.

McAlpin, Robert, -1852--Family.

McAlpin, Robert.

Birmingham (Ala.)--Social life and customs--20th century.

Birmingham (Ala.).

Birmingham (Ala.)--Race relations--History--20th century.

Birmingham (Ala.)--Biography.

Alabama--Birmingham.

Southern States.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

xviii, 266 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University of Alabama Press, [2023]

Summary:

"A deeply personal memoir that unearths a family history of racism, slaveholding, and trauma as well as love and sparks of delight. Marcia Herman's family moved to Birmingham in 1946, when she was five years old, and settled in the steel-making city dense with smog and a rigid apartheid system. Marcia, a shy only child, struggled to fit in and understand this world, shadowed as it was by her mother's proud antebellum heritage. In 1966, weary of Alabama's toxic culture, Marcia and her young family left Birmingham and built a life in North Carolina. Later in life, Herman-Giddens resumed a search to find out what she did not know about her family history. Unloose My Heart interweaves the story of her youth and coming of age in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement together with this quest to understand exactly who and what her maternal ancestors were and her obligations as a white woman within a broader sense of American family. More than a memoir set against the backdrop of Jim Crow and the civil rights struggle, this is the work of a woman of conscience writing in the twenty-first century. Haunted by the past, Unloose My Heart is a journey of exploration and discovery, full of angst, sorrow, and yearning. Unearthing her forebears' centuries-long embrace of plantation slavery, Herman-Giddens dug deeply to parse the arrogance and cruelty necessary to be a slaveholder and the trauma and fear that ripple out in its wake. All this forced her to scrutinize the impact of this legacy in her life, as well as her debt to the enslaved people who suffered and were exploited at her ancestors' hands. But she also discovers lost connections, new cousins and friends, unexpected joys, and, eventually, a measure of peace in the process. With heartbreak, moments of grace, and an enduring sense of love, Unloose My Heart shines a light in the darkness and provides a model for a heartfelt reckoning with American history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I Early Childhood

ch. 1 A Hybrid Self

ch. 2 Moving to Birmingham

ch. 3 Searching for Jessie Robinson

ch. 4 The McAlpins Expand

ch. 5 Summers North

ch. 6 Summers South

ch. 7 Harmony Hall, the Richardsons, and Turpentine

pt. II Coming of Age

ch. 8 The Brooke Hill School for Girls and Ramsay High School

ch. 9 College and Marriage, 1960

pt. III "Bombingham"

ch. 10 Back to Birmingham, 1961

ch. 11 Birmingham, 1962

ch. 12 Birmingham Explodes, 1963

ch. 13 Birmingham, Tuskegee Institute, and Project CAUSE, 1964

ch. 14 Tuskegee Again and the Concerned White Citizens March, 1965

ch. 15 Burrowing into Cotton

ch. 16 Leaving Birmingham, 1966

ch. 17 At the End.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780817321451

0817321454

OCLC:

1334108041

Publisher Number:

99993364815