Scalawag: a white Southerner's journey through segregation to human rights activism

Scalawag tells the surprising story of a whiteworking-class boy who became an unlikely civil rights activist.

Born in 1935 in Richmond, wherehe was sent to segregated churches and schools, Ed Peeples was taught the ethos and lore of whitesupremacy by every adult in his young life.

That message came with an equally cruel one-that,as the child of a wage-earning single mother, he was destined for failure.Butby age nineteen Peeples became what the whites in his world called a "traitor to therace." Pushed by a lone teacher to think critically, Peeples found his way to the black freedomstruggle and began a long life of activism.

He challenged racism in his U.S. Navy unit and engagedin sit-ins and community organizing.

Later, as a university professor, he agitated for goodjobs, health care, and decent housing for all, pushed for the creation of African American studiescourses at his university, and worked toward equal treatment for women, prison reform, and more.

Peeples did most of his human rights work in his native Virginia, and his story reveals howinstitutional racism pervaded the Upper South as much as the Deep South.Coveringfifty years' participation in the long civil rights movement, Peeples's gripping story bringsto life an unsung activist culture to which countless forgotten individuals contributed, over timeexpanding their commitment from civil rights to other causes.

This engrossing, witty tale of escapefrom what once seemed certain fate invites readers to reflect on how moral courage can transform alife.