Description
Book SynopsisThis is the memoir of Signe Waller, whose husband, James, was killed in the Greensboro Massacre in November 1979. The author documents an important period in the Southern struggle against racism and economic injustice and explores its meaning for the survival of American democracy.
Trade ReviewWaller significantly adds to the historical record of a violent episode that took place in a city that long prided itself on its progressivism. . . . Intimate knowledge enables her to portray the slain demonstrators as real people cut down in their prime. Love and Revolution not only sheds light on what survivors call the Greensboro Massacre, but also illuminates how 88 seconds of gunfire that shook a housing project 24 years ago echo to this day. * The Philadelphia Inquirer *
This is a marvelous recounting of how the CWP managed to organize textile workers, not only in Greensboro but also throughout North Carolina. Recommended. * CHOICE *
Signe Waller's life exemplifies how the political and the personal are one. Her courage, her unflinching honesty, and her ability to look critically at herself, her beloved husband, her friends, and her enemies make this book essential reading. To understand what happened in Greensboro on November 3, 1979 is to understand a movement, a country, and a generation. Signe Waller has given us, through Love and Revolution: A Political Memoir, a rare gift. -- Emily Mann, The McCarter Theatre, Princeton
Signe Waller's perceptive biographical sketches in Love and Revolution rescue an important part of American history that is usually overlooked. Her work does for the social justice movements of the 1960s and after what the movie 'Reds' did for the revolutionary generation of the post-World War One era: it discloses what radicals and revolutionaries were fighting for and why they decided to follow that path in life. -- Kenneth Robert Janken, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Signe Waller's life personifies courageous political commitment and integrity. Her story represents an intimate and deeply moving portrayal of one person's struggle for justice. This extraordinary book speaks to the best in all of us. -- Manning Marable, M. Moran Weston/Black Alumni Council Professor of African-American Studies, Columbia University
For Signe and Jim Waller, the politics of social justice were never theoretical. Jim died for his principles, murdered by the Klan in November of 1979. In Love and Revolution, Signe relives these years with a vividness and generosity of spirit that make for both a magnificent memoir and an important chronicle of our time. -- Fitzhugh Mullan, author of
White Coat, Clenched Fist: The Political Education of An American Physician
Signe Waller gives us in this moving memoir an important piece of the hidden history of our time. Her story tells us so much about our country, about things to be ashamed of, and about people to be proud of. -- Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and professor emeritus of Political Science, Boston University
This is an important look at a tragic moment in civil rights history—almost written out of history and memory. But now a victim—who refuses to be victimized—has told the story. -- Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus, NAACP
The fight-back after the Greensboro Massacre was a watershed in the struggle against racism. It became that because the widows and other victims refused to give up and organized effectively. I know of no instance where tragedy has been transformed so creatively. This book weaves together the personal and political so that we come to know the martyrs and survivors, who were part of that remarkable generation radicalized by the 1960s. They beleived passionately that they could change the world and—although they made tactical mistakes—succeeded for a time in uniting people of color and whites in struggle in one of the most repressive states in the south. -- Anne Braden, Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice
A serious, complex, and important study of one of our city's most devastating, least understood events. Waller is able to zoom in and show what it was like to live through this searing and sorrowful event - seen now through the eyes of a woman who is older, wiser, and more circumspect thatn the strident propagandist of 20 years ago. * News and Record: Greensboro, Nc *
This is rich, new material for historians and students of the 1970s, the labor movement, and recent Southern history. * Socialism and Democracy *
A comprehensive, heavily footnoted account with an invaluable index. * High Point Enterprise *
An important account of history. * Anderson Independent *
With a wonderfully hybrid structure combining biography, autobiography, journalism, history, and trenchant political criticism, Waller has provided us with a vivid picture of the community of activists that once sustained her personal and political life, as well as of an event that forever altered it. * Contemporary Sociology *
Waller weaves her deeply personal story into a sweeping historical account that details the shifting alliances among factions of the New Communist Movement. A comprehensive, heavily footnoted account with an invaluable index. * Missoulian *
Table of Contents
Part 1 Heirs to the Radical Sixties Chapter 2 1 The Making of a Radical or How I Became One of Them Chapter 3 2 Jim Waller M.D. in the New Communist Movement Chapter 4 3 Nelson Johnson and the Politics of Black Liberation Chapter 5 4 Durham Activists Tell It Like It Is Part 6 Home-Grown Bolsheviks Chapter 7 5 Organize! Make a Mighty River Chapter 8 6 People, People, Have You Heard? Chapter 9 7 And Cone You Own the Factories, But Us You Do Not Own Chapter 10 8 Something's Rising in the Nation Chapter 11 9 China Grove and the Preparations for November Third Chapter 12 10 Like a Wolf on the Fold: The Greensboro Massacre Part 13 Home-Grown Fascists Chapter 14 11 This Precipitous Hour Chapter 15 12 Resisting Upside Down Justice: The Civil Rights Movement Reawakened Chapter 16 13 A Lesser Crime to Kill a Communist Chapter 17 14 Green Light for Reactionary Violence: The State Trial in 1980 Chapter 18 15 The Blitz Amendment and Other McCarthyisms Chapter 19 16 A Winding Road to Justice: Bringing Federal Charges Chapter 20 17 Victory and a Whitewash: The Grand Jury in 1982-83 Chapter 21 18 No Racial Animus? The Federal Trial in 1984 Part 22 On New Foundations Chapter 23 19 Partners in Crime: The Civil Rights Suit in 1985 Chapter 24 20 Convened by Martyrs
