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A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation
A “masterful” (Taylor Branch) and “striking” (
The New Yorker
) portrait of a small town living through tumultuous times, this propulsive piece of forgotten civil rights history—about the first school to attempt court-ordered desegregation in the wake of Brown v. Board—will forever change how you think of the end of racial segregation in America.
In graduate school, Rachel Martin was sent to a small town in the foothills of the Appalachians, where locals wanted to build a museum to commemorate the events of September 1956, when Clinton High School became the first school in the former Confederacy to attempt court mandated desegregation.
But not everyone wanted to talk. As one founder of the Tennessee White Youth told her, “Honey, there was a lot of ugliness down at the school that year; best we just move on and forget it.”
For years, Martin wondered what it was some white residents of Clinton didn’t want remembered. So, she went back, eventually interviewing over sixty townsfolk—including nearly a dozen of the first students to desegregate Clinton High—to piece together what happened back in 1956: the death threats and beatings, picket lines and cross burnings, neighbors turned on neighbors and preachers for the first time at a loss for words. The National Guard rushed to town, along with national journalists like Edward R. Morrow and even evangelist Billy Graham. But that wasn’t the most explosive secret Martin learned...
In A Most Tolerant Little Town, Rachel Martin weaves together over a dozen perspectives in an intimate, kaleidoscopic portrait of a small town living through a turbulent turning point for America. The result is at once a “gripping” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) mystery and a moving piece of forgotten civil rights history, rendered “with precision, lucidity and, most of all, a heart inured to false hope” (The New York Times).
You may never before have heard of Clinton, Tennessee—but you won’t be forgetting the town anytime soon.
In graduate school, Rachel Martin was sent to a small town in the foothills of the Appalachians, where locals wanted to build a museum to commemorate the events of September 1956, when Clinton High School became the first school in the former Confederacy to attempt court mandated desegregation.
But not everyone wanted to talk. As one founder of the Tennessee White Youth told her, “Honey, there was a lot of ugliness down at the school that year; best we just move on and forget it.”
For years, Martin wondered what it was some white residents of Clinton didn’t want remembered. So, she went back, eventually interviewing over sixty townsfolk—including nearly a dozen of the first students to desegregate Clinton High—to piece together what happened back in 1956: the death threats and beatings, picket lines and cross burnings, neighbors turned on neighbors and preachers for the first time at a loss for words. The National Guard rushed to town, along with national journalists like Edward R. Morrow and even evangelist Billy Graham. But that wasn’t the most explosive secret Martin learned...
In A Most Tolerant Little Town, Rachel Martin weaves together over a dozen perspectives in an intimate, kaleidoscopic portrait of a small town living through a turbulent turning point for America. The result is at once a “gripping” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) mystery and a moving piece of forgotten civil rights history, rendered “with precision, lucidity and, most of all, a heart inured to false hope” (The New York Times).
You may never before have heard of Clinton, Tennessee—but you won’t be forgetting the town anytime soon.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 13, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
April 5, 2023
Rachel Martin does a phenomenal job researching and sharing the story about Clinton, TN, a small rural Appalachian town that had the first school in the former Confederacy to undergo court-mandated desegregation. Martin began exploring the oral history of Clinton High School's desegregation efforts when she was a graduate student in 2005. She continued to be immersed in Clinton, TN's history for the next eighteen years. She spoke extensively with over sixty residents as well as the twelve courageous African-American high school students who entered Clinton High School on August 27, 1956.
A Most Tolerant Little Town: A Forgotten Story of Desegregation in America is a gripping, page-turning, non-fiction thriller based on the the events that occurred in Clinton, TN between 1956 - 1958. Some of the horrendous, racist actions included bombs, death threats, beatings, picket lines, KKK parades and burning crosses, gunshots, and rocks thrown through windows. The National Guard was called out. Evangelist Billy Graham spoke to thousands from the school gymnasium encouraging residents to love and take care of each other.
Yet Clinton, TN is an unknown story. Many people are familiar with the significant desegregation challenges at Central High School in Little Rock, AR in 1957 as well as other cities' desegregation efforts (Birmingham, Nashville, Los Angeles, etc.). Martin shares that memories are not time machines. We choose what we want to remember and what we want to forget. Edward Murrow, a pioneering documentarian, created two award winning films about Clinton, TN, but the town is not mentioned in any official civil rights history.
Martin places the reader right in the center of riveting, action-packed drama. You feel as if you are walking the hallways of the high school.
Martin's biggest lesson is that history is the story of human beings responding to events that are seldom under their control. She indicates that part of the story involves hamartia. I wasn't familiar with that word and had to look up the definition: a fatal flaw which leads to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
Highly, highly recommend!
Thanks, NetGalley, for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
A Most Tolerant Little Town: A Forgotten Story of Desegregation in America is a gripping, page-turning, non-fiction thriller based on the the events that occurred in Clinton, TN between 1956 - 1958. Some of the horrendous, racist actions included bombs, death threats, beatings, picket lines, KKK parades and burning crosses, gunshots, and rocks thrown through windows. The National Guard was called out. Evangelist Billy Graham spoke to thousands from the school gymnasium encouraging residents to love and take care of each other.
Yet Clinton, TN is an unknown story. Many people are familiar with the significant desegregation challenges at Central High School in Little Rock, AR in 1957 as well as other cities' desegregation efforts (Birmingham, Nashville, Los Angeles, etc.). Martin shares that memories are not time machines. We choose what we want to remember and what we want to forget. Edward Murrow, a pioneering documentarian, created two award winning films about Clinton, TN, but the town is not mentioned in any official civil rights history.
Martin places the reader right in the center of riveting, action-packed drama. You feel as if you are walking the hallways of the high school.
Martin's biggest lesson is that history is the story of human beings responding to events that are seldom under their control. She indicates that part of the story involves hamartia. I wasn't familiar with that word and had to look up the definition: a fatal flaw which leads to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
Highly, highly recommend!
Thanks, NetGalley, for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
July 6, 2023
I grew up in Clinton, Tennessee. Attended Clinton Elementary, Clinton Junior High, Clinton Middle, and Clinton High school. As a kid, I played rec league basketball in Green McAdoo gymnasium, and my grandmother worked in the Green McAdoo Cultural Center after its conversion to a museum in 2006. Reading this book was like reading a prequel to my life in my hometown.
I grew up hearing stories about the bombing of Clinton High School, but only from my mother, who was seven at the time it happened. Those in my family who would know the details best didn't talk about it. In my experience, what Martin writes is true:
Martin walks us through the 1956-1957 school year at Clinton High School, and crucially, forces us to consider not only the social, but the individual, personal, psychological cost of attempting to desegregate Clinton High School.
Two other challenges Martin presents to us are the complexities of human motivation, arising as they do, from the broken people we all are. Many of the white folks most committed to the peaceful desegregation of Clinton High School were not themselves advocates for desegregation. They were what Martin calls "the white law-and-order crowd." They believed in following the law, doing their duty, and treating people well. They didn't –initially at least – work to peacefully desegregate the school because they believed it was a moral imperative; they did it because it was a legal requirement. They didn't oppose the violent segregationists because they opposed segregation; they opposed them because they opposed violent mob rule. Martin reminds us that we are all works-in-progress, and demanding ideological perfection of our friends and allies "risks deepening the divisions that threaten our body politic." Perhaps more importantly, "When we tell people they do not belong in our movement – that they must...do the internal work before they can be of any use to us – we are ignoring the ways actions themselves can invoke internal change."
Finally, Martin reminds us that integration of our schools, of our neighborhoods, of our communities, of our nation, is not an accomplishment; it is a goal yet to be achieved:
As a native of Clinton, as an American, living with the legacy of this town and this effort, Martin's book is essential reading. I am grateful for what she has done here.
I grew up hearing stories about the bombing of Clinton High School, but only from my mother, who was seven at the time it happened. Those in my family who would know the details best didn't talk about it. In my experience, what Martin writes is true:
...community members stopped talking about those years. Individuals of different races and classes lived parallel lives, looking away from the deep social divides Clinton High School's desegregation had uncovered and the lingering anger that existed decades after the violence ended.
Martin walks us through the 1956-1957 school year at Clinton High School, and crucially, forces us to consider not only the social, but the individual, personal, psychological cost of attempting to desegregate Clinton High School.
As one reporter had noticed when he interviewed Bobby Cain, many of [the Clinton Twelve] exhibited symptoms of what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder. They'd seen their neighbors turn on them in violence. They'd watched as people they trusted looked away while they were attacked. They'd been beaten and bombed and harassed and shunned. They'd lived with the fear – and the reality – of what could happen to them and their families when they demanded their rights. They'd lost their sense of home and their sense of safety. And afterward, they'd had to make peace with the society that had betrayed them.
Two other challenges Martin presents to us are the complexities of human motivation, arising as they do, from the broken people we all are. Many of the white folks most committed to the peaceful desegregation of Clinton High School were not themselves advocates for desegregation. They were what Martin calls "the white law-and-order crowd." They believed in following the law, doing their duty, and treating people well. They didn't –initially at least – work to peacefully desegregate the school because they believed it was a moral imperative; they did it because it was a legal requirement. They didn't oppose the violent segregationists because they opposed segregation; they opposed them because they opposed violent mob rule. Martin reminds us that we are all works-in-progress, and demanding ideological perfection of our friends and allies "risks deepening the divisions that threaten our body politic." Perhaps more importantly, "When we tell people they do not belong in our movement – that they must...do the internal work before they can be of any use to us – we are ignoring the ways actions themselves can invoke internal change."
Finally, Martin reminds us that integration of our schools, of our neighborhoods, of our communities, of our nation, is not an accomplishment; it is a goal yet to be achieved:
"Integration is the dream: the full elimination of discrimination based on color....Or as Clinton High School teacher Margaret Anderson explained in an article for the New York Times in 1960, "Desegregation involves the admittance of Negro students into a white school in compliance with the law. Integration involves the conversion of the two groups into a smooth-running system, with a working relationship free of tensions."
As a native of Clinton, as an American, living with the legacy of this town and this effort, Martin's book is essential reading. I am grateful for what she has done here.
May 29, 2023
This was an especially shocking read for me, as I live a county away from this. I had been under the illusion that things weren't as bad here as they were until I'd looked up a graveyard linked to a plantation near the Manhattan Project plants they speak of in the book, which is not far from Clinton either. It was formerly the Wheat Community if you're interested.
So after learning that a few months ago, when I saw this I knew I had to read it. Again, I thought it was going to be nicer than it was. It was another brutal lesson in how Black Americans were treated and in my grandmother's lifetime. When people say it ended after the Civil War so no one we've ever known has been affected by true racism, that just isn't true. People were like rabid dogs. It's disgusting.
Of course there are the helpers that lend you some hope. Aside from all of the information on the Clinton schools the author has meticulously gathered, it also had a lot of historical facts of the area that I hadn't known.
This was a worthwhile read, though not easy for sure.
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review.
So after learning that a few months ago, when I saw this I knew I had to read it. Again, I thought it was going to be nicer than it was. It was another brutal lesson in how Black Americans were treated and in my grandmother's lifetime. When people say it ended after the Civil War so no one we've ever known has been affected by true racism, that just isn't true. People were like rabid dogs. It's disgusting.
Of course there are the helpers that lend you some hope. Aside from all of the information on the Clinton schools the author has meticulously gathered, it also had a lot of historical facts of the area that I hadn't known.
This was a worthwhile read, though not easy for sure.
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review.
October 27, 2023
I was at Brownies when a mother came to the door of the room, her daughter in front of her, a son peeking from behind her. The woman had on a car coat and hat, the girl was in a lovely dress, its full skirt puffed out with petticoats. It was perhaps 1962, or 1961. The girl was introduced as a new member of the troop. She shyly came into the room, her mother closing the door with a concerned look.
I do remember that a week or two later, the girl was missing.
Before she came, the troop leader had passed out paper booklets to read. The booklet told a story about three bunnies: a white one, a yellow one, and a black one. It was my first encounter with the idea of racism. For that little girl was African American. I didn’t understand it at the time, but that mother had to be courageous, to send her girl into a white school and a white troop, to integrate it.
Over the years, I wondered and worried about what had kept that girl from returning.
A Most Tolerant Little Town is the story of the first school to be integrated after Brown vs Board. It is not a pretty story. In 1956, ten African American high school students enrolled at Clinton High, a top high school in Tennessee, looking for a better education than was available at the black schools. The principal was a segregationist, but believed in following the law of the land. The pastor of the largest church in town was a segregationist, yet when they were being harassed, he offered to walk the students into school. Later the pastor was beaten by segregationists. The principal and his family were threatened. These men were traumatized by what went on, and ended up committing suicide.
And they were the white victims of the segregationists. The students suffered much worse, the onslaught affecting them both short term and long term. The harassment and threats of violence escalated. Not just teen boys pushing them around, not just girls sporting racist club badges, and Klanners patrolling the black neighborhood. Dynamite was set off near houses, businesses, and finally the school.
Several of the black students managed to graduate from Clinton High. One girl was unsure it was worth it, although she knew it would help those who came after her. And I did have to question if the Federal government’s mandating integration was helpful. These white and black kids had gotten along before integration of the school, their families were friendly with each other. But the fear of miscegenation arising from schooling black and white together, the belief that God had mandated a racial hierarchy, was entrenched, spurring fear, and then violence.
And yet, what was the alternative? Black schools were underfunded and couldn’t provide the same quality of education. The families could leave for another state, and several did; one of the original ten graduated from Madison Heights in Michigan, a few miles away from where I live. (That would be an interesting story to read, considering that Metro Detroit is and has been one of the most segregated areas in the country.) These families were only asking for what was lawful. An equal opportunity.
“We choose what we want to remember, and we also choose what we will forget,” Martin writes in the Prologue. Martin went to Clinton to launch an oral history initiative, collecting stories of the school’s desegregation. At the time, 1956-58, the news was filled with the story. Newspaper columnist Drew Pearson was instrumental in raising money to rebuild the high school, and Evangelist Billy Graham went to Clinton and preached a God of love and peace, calling for repentance and forgiveness.
The sacrifice and heroism of the students who took on the burden of being first is impressive. One girl was bodily picked up, struggling against being thrown into the school auditorium. How do you forget, having read this? And to know, it’s not in the past, this hate and violence, it is experienced today. Martin warns that we have more segregation in 2019 than we did in 1990. The Supreme Court has ruled that “race was no longer a valid criterion for determining school assignments,” setting off resegregation of schools.
With excellent story telling, engrossingly presented, Martin has resurrected a forgotten history that focuses on the people involved, and their choices and convictions.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
I do remember that a week or two later, the girl was missing.
Before she came, the troop leader had passed out paper booklets to read. The booklet told a story about three bunnies: a white one, a yellow one, and a black one. It was my first encounter with the idea of racism. For that little girl was African American. I didn’t understand it at the time, but that mother had to be courageous, to send her girl into a white school and a white troop, to integrate it.
Over the years, I wondered and worried about what had kept that girl from returning.
A Most Tolerant Little Town is the story of the first school to be integrated after Brown vs Board. It is not a pretty story. In 1956, ten African American high school students enrolled at Clinton High, a top high school in Tennessee, looking for a better education than was available at the black schools. The principal was a segregationist, but believed in following the law of the land. The pastor of the largest church in town was a segregationist, yet when they were being harassed, he offered to walk the students into school. Later the pastor was beaten by segregationists. The principal and his family were threatened. These men were traumatized by what went on, and ended up committing suicide.
And they were the white victims of the segregationists. The students suffered much worse, the onslaught affecting them both short term and long term. The harassment and threats of violence escalated. Not just teen boys pushing them around, not just girls sporting racist club badges, and Klanners patrolling the black neighborhood. Dynamite was set off near houses, businesses, and finally the school.
Several of the black students managed to graduate from Clinton High. One girl was unsure it was worth it, although she knew it would help those who came after her. And I did have to question if the Federal government’s mandating integration was helpful. These white and black kids had gotten along before integration of the school, their families were friendly with each other. But the fear of miscegenation arising from schooling black and white together, the belief that God had mandated a racial hierarchy, was entrenched, spurring fear, and then violence.
And yet, what was the alternative? Black schools were underfunded and couldn’t provide the same quality of education. The families could leave for another state, and several did; one of the original ten graduated from Madison Heights in Michigan, a few miles away from where I live. (That would be an interesting story to read, considering that Metro Detroit is and has been one of the most segregated areas in the country.) These families were only asking for what was lawful. An equal opportunity.
“We choose what we want to remember, and we also choose what we will forget,” Martin writes in the Prologue. Martin went to Clinton to launch an oral history initiative, collecting stories of the school’s desegregation. At the time, 1956-58, the news was filled with the story. Newspaper columnist Drew Pearson was instrumental in raising money to rebuild the high school, and Evangelist Billy Graham went to Clinton and preached a God of love and peace, calling for repentance and forgiveness.
The sacrifice and heroism of the students who took on the burden of being first is impressive. One girl was bodily picked up, struggling against being thrown into the school auditorium. How do you forget, having read this? And to know, it’s not in the past, this hate and violence, it is experienced today. Martin warns that we have more segregation in 2019 than we did in 1990. The Supreme Court has ruled that “race was no longer a valid criterion for determining school assignments,” setting off resegregation of schools.
With excellent story telling, engrossingly presented, Martin has resurrected a forgotten history that focuses on the people involved, and their choices and convictions.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
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August 1, 2024
A history of school desegregation in Clinton, TN—the first high school in the former Confederate South to desegregate.
Brilliantly told, exhaustingly researched, Martin tackles an explosive (literally—there are bombers who are "unknown" who blew up the high school, several other buildings and set fire to multiple Black-owned homes) topic.
I love that she constantly brings up the fact that these people are still alive. It was only seventy years ago. The brave Black students who were the first at Clinton are still here (many suffering from what is now known as PTSD), as are their white tormentors. Their white tormenters who look their victims in the eyes each day in this small town and choose to bury the memories instead of face their complicity.
Also, I learned that schools are more segregated now than they were in 1968, due to white backlash against bussing and other desegregation policies.
Anywho, this is a great book, and I can't believe we aren't talking about Clinton when we talk about desegregation, because HOLY SHIT.
Brilliantly told, exhaustingly researched, Martin tackles an explosive (literally—there are bombers who are "unknown" who blew up the high school, several other buildings and set fire to multiple Black-owned homes) topic.
I love that she constantly brings up the fact that these people are still alive. It was only seventy years ago. The brave Black students who were the first at Clinton are still here (many suffering from what is now known as PTSD), as are their white tormentors. Their white tormenters who look their victims in the eyes each day in this small town and choose to bury the memories instead of face their complicity.
Also, I learned that schools are more segregated now than they were in 1968, due to white backlash against bussing and other desegregation policies.
Anywho, this is a great book, and I can't believe we aren't talking about Clinton when we talk about desegregation, because HOLY SHIT.
March 30, 2023
Everyone should read this book. Especially every educator, every school administrator. Martin does an outstanding job of chronicling the high school desegregation effort in Clinton, Tennessee in a thoughtful and provocative way that is going to make this a best-seller and a book club star. Although her research began as an academic project, her writing here is intended to reach a large and wide audience, and it is compelling and eloquent. Many Americans know the story of the Little Rock 9, but few know of the Clinton 12, but we should--and we should know the entire story, including the lives of those involved following the desegregation efforts. Martin provides a summary of just where the US is today in terms of school integration, and it is sobering and requiring of action on the parts of anyone interested in the future of education and the future of the United States.
June 28, 2023
I have struggled in the writing of this review; how can I write anymore about the horrors that the Black children experienced at the hands of their peers [and their hood-cloaked parents] just for the opportunity to go to school. S C H O O L!!! Something that the rest of us take completely for granted [and absolutely should not]. And while this story is not new [in the sense of what Black children and teens experienced all over America in trying to have the same experiences of everyone else], it IS new in the sense that it happened before Little Rock and is indeed the beginning of school desegregation and it was just as horrific and just as explosive [literally and figuratively] as what came after.
This is not a happy book [history rarely is, even as we learn and remember and continue the fight for equality and change and the "unalienable rights of all"] and there is no happy ending [and what you learn about what is happening in schools RIGHT NOW will make you wonder just when people will learn, if ever], and you are left heartbroken and praying that someday, SOMEDAY, change will stick. This is a must-read book, especially if we are going to continue the fight. For we must. We must continue to get in "good trouble".
Thank you to Rachel Louise Martin - your clear writing and willingness to show even the extremely ugly side of desegregation, made this book an amazing [and upsetting and ugly-crying] read and I am thankful for the reminder that the fight is not over.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Shuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is not a happy book [history rarely is, even as we learn and remember and continue the fight for equality and change and the "unalienable rights of all"] and there is no happy ending [and what you learn about what is happening in schools RIGHT NOW will make you wonder just when people will learn, if ever], and you are left heartbroken and praying that someday, SOMEDAY, change will stick. This is a must-read book, especially if we are going to continue the fight. For we must. We must continue to get in "good trouble".
Thank you to Rachel Louise Martin - your clear writing and willingness to show even the extremely ugly side of desegregation, made this book an amazing [and upsetting and ugly-crying] read and I am thankful for the reminder that the fight is not over.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Shuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
August 25, 2023
Y’all this was SO good and so intentionally crafted. Just read the author’s note on page 1 and you’ll see what I mean.
This happened on the other side of the state in Clinton, TN, but gives a powerful framework for understanding the complexity and attitudes towards school desegregation in Memphis and across the South that still persist today.
The unpretty truth that is sticking with me is this was very much not a battle of segregationists vs. desegregationists, the overwhelming majority of white folks supported segregation. Instead it was a battle of the segregationists vs. folks who wanted law and order. A heart of protecting the rights of black citizens was not the priority so much as obeying the Supreme Court’s ruling.
That distinction matters because when respect for federal institutions and mandates crumble, as has been the case repeatedly over the last 10 years, so too crumbles protection for the marginalized as the ugliness of our nation’s collective heart is revealed.
This happened on the other side of the state in Clinton, TN, but gives a powerful framework for understanding the complexity and attitudes towards school desegregation in Memphis and across the South that still persist today.
The unpretty truth that is sticking with me is this was very much not a battle of segregationists vs. desegregationists, the overwhelming majority of white folks supported segregation. Instead it was a battle of the segregationists vs. folks who wanted law and order. A heart of protecting the rights of black citizens was not the priority so much as obeying the Supreme Court’s ruling.
That distinction matters because when respect for federal institutions and mandates crumble, as has been the case repeatedly over the last 10 years, so too crumbles protection for the marginalized as the ugliness of our nation’s collective heart is revealed.
August 3, 2023
Rachel Martin presents the important and well researched true story of the first school in south to deal with court ordered desegregation. The experiences of the 12 Clinton, TN students as they tried to attend high school in their own school district have largely been ignored, with Little Rock serving as the primary desegregation history. The events revealed in this narrative include beatings, bombings, cross burnings, death threats and KKK parades. This very real and painful part of our history must not be "cleansed" from our history for anyone's political gain or personal comfort. I would recommend this book to everyone.
July 9, 2023
The incredible story of Clinton High School — the first court-ordered desegregated school in America. Learn about your state’s history, y’all. I wasn’t born in Tennessee, and I don’t always love it, but it has become home having lived here now for 11 years (total). The kids / families who wrought desegregation are true heroes. Sadly, the fact still stands that desegregation isn’t the same as true integration. We can continue to do better.
August 4, 2023
Thank you, Rachel Louise Martin, for the countless hours you invested in telling the suppressed but vital history of my hometown. You had me from the dedication (“Dedicated to the children sent to undo four hundred years of injustice”). There were so many moments that took my breath away. Friends, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.
August 27, 2023
WHAT A BOOK. I know a good bit about the history of de- (then re-)segregation of the US's K-12 schools, but Rachel Martin's history of Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee knocked me for a loop. It desegregated one year before Little Rock, and the details were even more violent and precarious. Martin has done impressive work interviewing folks who lived through this experience, and she recounts the history efficiently. The violence in Clinton is shocking (more egregious than in Little Rock), and she highlights some of the dynamics that are absolutely resonant in our current moment. First, she centers the *active* racism of white women and girls in Clinton; she presents tons of details about how they very much used their agency to perpetuate harassment and hostility. Second, she repeatedly notes the ways in which Southern racists went after the journalists (local and national) who were covering the story; the press was very much "the enemy" of folks who wanted to keep to their repulsive traditions. Third, she's clear that stereotypes of poor dumb Southerners doesn't do justice to how class-spanning the segregationists were; plenty of middle-class and professional Tennesseans were eagerly participating in Klaverns and violent harassment of the students simply trying to get a better resourced education. Fourth and crucially, she's careful and sensitive in recounting both how important *and* how traumatic the bravery and persistence of the Black families was in pursuing this education. She's clear to demonstrate the ways in which they experienced real physical peril, and takes care to note lasting effects on those families. Last and particularly trenchant for me, she regularly highlights the ways in which many of the white people who became allies started out as committed segregationists. They were not in favor of integrating the schools, but they were for the rule of law, and the violence and mob rule of the active supremacists appalled them. Simply obeying the rule of law changed them, Martin notes, and she thinks this experience is telling for us nowadays, in terms of what it means to welcome people in support of advocacy work. This was just a compelling book to read.
July 9, 2023
I knew about the integration of Clinton High School and had even visited the Green McAdoo Museum when I was much younger, but reading in depth a full account of what happened in a city just 20 miles from where I live was shocking.
July 27, 2023
Martin tells the story of the integration of my high school in 1956. I would enter the school later, in 1975- a new high school had been built and the building that was the high school of this story was, by my time, the Jr. High School. I had no idea about the integration story of the school until my 50’s. It was a well kept secret it seems- it was the first court-ordered integration of a school in the country. Before Little Rock. And I never knew. Martin makes the point that while the school (and most schools thereafter) achieved desegregation, true integration is “an experiment we have yet to try.”
This is an important story among many in the long, long, exhausting story of racism in America. We need to know our history!!!! And we have to stay engaged despite our discomfort and apathy.
This is an important story among many in the long, long, exhausting story of racism in America. We need to know our history!!!! And we have to stay engaged despite our discomfort and apathy.
September 3, 2023
The history that every American should learn
This is the sort of book that some politicians and activist groups would like to banish from schools and libraries for fear that it might make children uncomfortable. It certainly will, and most adults as well, but that is what makes it a must-read. The story of race and inequality in America is not a straightforward, feel-good narrative of heroism and happy endings. Some people in Clinton did behave with extraordinary heroism, but were traumatized and embittered by what they suffered. Two committed suicide. Some of the teenagers who spent two years of physical and psychological torment at Clinton high school did successfully complete their education, but at the cost of PTSD, and of missing out on the social experiences of teenagers. As the reviewer in the New Yorker observed, "This was a war, and we sent children to fight it."
And today? Public schools are just as separate and even less equal than they once were. The kind of bestial brutality that can erupt when races come into conflict is still very much a part of our society. In 2020, people still needed to assert that "Black lives matter." We have a long way to go, and the lessons of Clinton must not be forgotten or bowdlerized.
This is the sort of book that some politicians and activist groups would like to banish from schools and libraries for fear that it might make children uncomfortable. It certainly will, and most adults as well, but that is what makes it a must-read. The story of race and inequality in America is not a straightforward, feel-good narrative of heroism and happy endings. Some people in Clinton did behave with extraordinary heroism, but were traumatized and embittered by what they suffered. Two committed suicide. Some of the teenagers who spent two years of physical and psychological torment at Clinton high school did successfully complete their education, but at the cost of PTSD, and of missing out on the social experiences of teenagers. As the reviewer in the New Yorker observed, "This was a war, and we sent children to fight it."
And today? Public schools are just as separate and even less equal than they once were. The kind of bestial brutality that can erupt when races come into conflict is still very much a part of our society. In 2020, people still needed to assert that "Black lives matter." We have a long way to go, and the lessons of Clinton must not be forgotten or bowdlerized.
June 27, 2023
This felt like a personal story for me. I grew up about 45 miles from Clinton High School in East Tennessee. One afternoon about 50 years ago, my family and I were out for a Sunday drive, and we passed by Clinton High School. I heard my parents talking in low tones about things that had happened there. Ever curious about adult conversations conducted in low tones, I slid forward against the front seat (remember the days before seat belt laws) and asked what they were talking about. My parents told me a bit of the story of the 1956 integration, the fierce white resistance, and the 1958 bombing that leveled the school.
Later when I taught U.S. history, I sought out Life magazine stories about the events in Clinton to create a primary source exercise for my students.
This book put flesh on the bones of the story I knew. It is a meticulously crafted and vivid account of those years and of the people, black and a few white, who fought to make integrated schools a reality. But it is more. It is the story of the lasting and often tragic impact of activism on the activists--the people who put their very lives on the line to make change. It is the story about what happens when a small community is torn apart by the exposure of racial fault lines--and how they seek to cope with living in that small community in the aftermath of cataclysm. It is also the story of the unfinished (barely begun, in fact) job of creating a culture of equity in this nation. And it is a call to action--particularly for white Americans.
Later when I taught U.S. history, I sought out Life magazine stories about the events in Clinton to create a primary source exercise for my students.
This book put flesh on the bones of the story I knew. It is a meticulously crafted and vivid account of those years and of the people, black and a few white, who fought to make integrated schools a reality. But it is more. It is the story of the lasting and often tragic impact of activism on the activists--the people who put their very lives on the line to make change. It is the story about what happens when a small community is torn apart by the exposure of racial fault lines--and how they seek to cope with living in that small community in the aftermath of cataclysm. It is also the story of the unfinished (barely begun, in fact) job of creating a culture of equity in this nation. And it is a call to action--particularly for white Americans.
April 10, 2025
I have read a good bit about the civil rights movement in our country but I never learned about the desegregation of Clinton High. It was the very first school in the south to actually carry out desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. The impact of that desegregation on the small town of Clinton is a sad one. The 12 students who integrated the school in 1956 suffered more than anyone deserves. Sadly, much of what they experienced is still happening in the country today, perhaps just a bit less noticed. The situation in Clinton impacted everyone in the town, whether white or black. The black families had to take step to protect their property by standing watch outside their houses to prevent white segregationists from harming them. Many of the whites believed in segregation but also believed in "law and order" so they just wanted the situation to fade away. Unfortunately, there were an equal number of segregationists who were determined to keep the black students from staying enrolled in Clinton High. Although Clinton eventually integrated their high school, what happened during 1956 and 1957 left scars on just about everyone in that small town. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it!
December 26, 2023
I was unsure about this book early on. I couldn't tell if the book was trying to be a wide macro look at school integration policy, or a more micro oral history of a specific school. As I got further into the book I started to appreciate it more. The author wants us to not view the school integration movement as a snapshot, a static image of students being escorted to school, but instead a struggle that continues today. Although Clinton High School was "successfully" desegregated, it came at the cost of many personal sacrifices, both from the black students who were constantly bombarded with hatred through their high school years, and their adult allies who were ostracized and even violently assaulted.
The book ends with a final banger of a chapter that points out we're moving backwards with integration and that we need to view history not in bronze statues as if we've won, but the human toll these mistakes cause.
The book ends with a final banger of a chapter that points out we're moving backwards with integration and that we need to view history not in bronze statues as if we've won, but the human toll these mistakes cause.
August 15, 2023
This book was incredible. I feel so humbled by the fact that I have never heard such a detailed recollection of what desegregation looked like. This was shocking and saddening and I love how the author continually points out bias that still exists in our society and I think everyone should read this to become more aware of the depths of racism both back then and today.
dnf
September 9, 2023DNF @ 40%. This book is written strangely and I can't make sense of it. It's an interesting story, but it has these weird prose flourishes as well as time jumps that are hard to follow. It seems like it slowly wants to introduce you to all of the townfolks involved, but it's just hard to feel engaged even 40% in. I was mostly agreeing with the 2 and 3 star reviews.
June 16, 2024
There’s two types of narrative non fiction writers: the ones who remain objective while still seeming invested in the story, like they actually have a beating, bleeding, ventricle-dappled heart — and the ones who are boring as fuck.
Rachel Louise Martin is of the first kind, to the nth degree — Gods be praised!
Rachel Louise Martin is of the first kind, to the nth degree — Gods be praised!
February 12, 2025
While I have read about Ruby Bridges and the Little Rock 9, I was pretty unfamiliar with the desegregation of Clinton High School in TN before picking this up. I thought this was a super informative book, well researched without losing the humanity of anyone involved.
November 9, 2023
I learned about Brown v. Board of Education when in school but this is the story of desegregating the high school in Clinton, TN. Interesting read!
August 31, 2023
This book is not only relevant today, but explores the ways we can truly integrate schools (not merely desegregate) as was the hope back when these events took place. This was a fascinating and important look at local history I knew little about. Highly recommended for teachers and Tennesseans, especially.
August 16, 2023
Well researched and well told. The inside story of the first school to desegregate, in Clinton TN. People can be so cruel. It was exhausting to read at times because of all the cruelty, but very educational. We need to do better. Still.
Audiobook was well narrated.
Audiobook was well narrated.
August 17, 2023
Interesting and informative but poorly written. The author jumps forward and back in time, dumps background info in randomly, and can't seem to settle on how to indicate that she has no real concrete information to offer. At least a dozen times throughout the book, she says there were "maybe a dozen protestors or maybe two dozen or maybe fifty!" Later on it's "there were a hundred or maybe two hundred or maybe a thousand." I get it, memories fade and nobody kep records. But find a better way to express that.
May 16, 2023
This is a chilling account of one school's desegregation thanks to 12 brave Black students and their families who knew that they were putting their kids on the line, but believed that it would be for the better good and for a more hopeful and fair future. I call it a chilling account because the town presents as utterly normal and even nice in some ways. The first day of desegregation does have elements of hope. How different would it all unfolded without outsiders egging the townspeople on?
Martin has done her research very well and you can envision both the characters and the setting. In some ways, it almost reads like a novel. And, the reader must not forget that this is not so far in the past that people don't still remember these days.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. There's a lot to absorb for both past and future lessons.
Martin has done her research very well and you can envision both the characters and the setting. In some ways, it almost reads like a novel. And, the reader must not forget that this is not so far in the past that people don't still remember these days.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. There's a lot to absorb for both past and future lessons.
April 15, 2023
What a great example of empathetic history that this book is! Martin takes us to Tennessee where a town struggles to adapt to integration at the local high school. This isn't top down history by any means; readers won't find too many names they are familiar with, and those that they are primarily pop up in passing.
Martin's work shows us how heroes can sometimes be the people that we would never expect them to be. The principal of the high school had the most gripping story, and I was eager to see how he balanced the rights of the students and the tension within the town. We can speak all we want to about Eisenhower and Little Rock, but how many people like the people portrayed in this book go unnoticed?
The other contribution that this book makes is by examining the other side of the integration story. Not that racists need empathy or sympathy, but as historians, or as anyone who just wants to understand the situation in a fuller way, the book helps us to understand the other side. In many ways (again, albeit racist), these people truly felt like their world was coming apart; that it just wasn't simply that they hated people because of their skin color. It was the threat that African Americans made to their own existential outlook when they chose to attend the schools. The traditions and ways of life that they had clung to had changed. Again, this is not the right side to take, and I am not advocating that they deserve empathy. However, maybe a way out of the racial tensions of our time can at least be somewhat found in this book: by first understanding, and then guiding that other side to help them realize that change does not always mean loss.
Martin's work shows us how heroes can sometimes be the people that we would never expect them to be. The principal of the high school had the most gripping story, and I was eager to see how he balanced the rights of the students and the tension within the town. We can speak all we want to about Eisenhower and Little Rock, but how many people like the people portrayed in this book go unnoticed?
The other contribution that this book makes is by examining the other side of the integration story. Not that racists need empathy or sympathy, but as historians, or as anyone who just wants to understand the situation in a fuller way, the book helps us to understand the other side. In many ways (again, albeit racist), these people truly felt like their world was coming apart; that it just wasn't simply that they hated people because of their skin color. It was the threat that African Americans made to their own existential outlook when they chose to attend the schools. The traditions and ways of life that they had clung to had changed. Again, this is not the right side to take, and I am not advocating that they deserve empathy. However, maybe a way out of the racial tensions of our time can at least be somewhat found in this book: by first understanding, and then guiding that other side to help them realize that change does not always mean loss.
August 27, 2023
I found it hard to understand why the author, who has a doctorate degree, occasionally chose to tell this remarkable story as though she were nearly illiterate. For example, instead of writing, "Bobby had always been patient," she wrote, "Bobby'd always been patient." She would leave off the word "the" at the beginning of sentences as, for example, "Way they saw it, the more dissent the better." She casually referred to Pastors, officers of the law and educators by their first names. Yet, all things considered, and despite finding the writing style annoying, the content was well worth the read.
September 1, 2023
In September, 1956, Clinton, TN, became the first high school in the former Confederacy to attempt court-ordered desegregation in the wake of Brown v. Board. In this important, detailed, and thoroughly-researched book, Martin tells that nearly forgotten story. The depth and extent of racism and violence in that community is vividly exposed, and Martin, sadly, ends her story with a grim analysis of current desegregation efforts in America. I highly recommend A Most Tolerant Little Town!
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