New Book Examines Elizabeth and J. Waties Waring’s Rhetorical Campaign that Helped Advance School Desegregation

The Rhetorical Road to Brown v. Board of Education: Elizabeth and Waties Waring’s Campaign, a new book that examines the little-known rhetorical campaign that helped advance the cause of school desegregation, is now available for purchase. In the book, author Wanda Little Fenimore examines the rhetorical campaign of Elizabeth Avery Waring, a twice-divorced northern socialite, and her third husband, federal judge J. Waties Waring of Charleston.

In a series of speeches, the Warings exposed the incongruity and contradictions between American democratic ideals and the reality for Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. White supremacists pushed back. As a result, the couple received both damning and congratulatory letters that reveal the terms upon which segregation was defended and the reasons those who opposed white supremacy remained silent.

Using rich archival materials, Fenimore traces a symbolic battle that provided a locus for change in the landmark Supreme Court decision. This book is an account of this engaging, multilayered story of social progress.

You can learn more about the book here.

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