"We Ain't What We Was": Civil Rights in the New South

Over the past several years, federal affirmative action programs have increasingly come under fire in the courts and in the legislature. In "We Ain't What We Was," Frederick M. Wirt, a professor at the University of Illinois, examines the effects of 30 years of civil rights on a single Mississippi county, and his findings are surprisingly optimistic. Wirt interviewed everyone from county officials to the high-school senior class to gauge how attitudes about race have changed since the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Though some results are disappointing--black students still perform more poorly on standardized tests than their white counterparts, and the number of blacks on the county payroll has not increased much since the 1960s--there's much to be encouraged by. There's better communication between elected officials and black community leaders and more interest in the economic opportunities for all workers--black and white--when new businesses come to town.

Panola County hasn't solved all of its problems, as Professor Wirt's book makes clear, but it has come a long way since the early, violent days of the civil rights movement in the South. "We Ain't What We Was" is a testament to the role federal law often plays in issues for which there is no local mandate or desire to change.