{"product_id":"9780817390983","title":"Let Us Now Praise Famous Women: A Memoir","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn affectionate, humorous account of small town Alabama during the civil rights era.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When Frank Sikora's six-year-old daughter contracted pneumonia in 1962, his wife Millie vowed that would be the last winter she would spend in Ohio. Despite their misgivings about the racial tensions erupting there, they moved their family of six south, where Frank hoped to fulfill his dream of becoming a newspaper reporter. But when those dreams didn't materialize immediately, mounting bills, repossession, and eviction forced them to move in with Millie's parents, Dan and Minnie Belle Helms, in rural Wellington, Alabama.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e With even slimmer prospects for employment in impoverished Calhoun County, the Sikoras came to depend heavily upon the Helmses and extended family members and all their lives became closely intertwined. The Helmses were uneducated, unpolished people, but Sikora's narration of his life with them—often humorous but never condescending—provides a compelling portrait of the attitudes and lifestyle of poor whites in Alabama during the second half of the 20th century, just as James Agee's monumental work, \u003ci\u003eLet Us Now Praise Famous Men,\u003c\/i\u003e illuminated the Depression years in Hale County, Alabama. Sikora illustrates how resourceful, southern women, in particular, held their families together through trying times.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Interwoven with this commentary on rural white culture in the Deep South is the story of Sikora's developing career as a newsman. Determined to succeed, he finally lands a job with the \u003ci\u003eGadsden Times\u003c\/i\u003e reporting the news of black citizens. From that introduction to journalism, Sikora becomes one of Alabama's most acclaimed chroniclers of the civil rights movement, eventually writing some of the acknowledged masterpieces about the subject. Like his landmark book, \u003ci\u003eSelma, Lord, Selma,\u003c\/i\u003e Sikora's newest work tells the stories of ordinary Alabamians and their perspectives on extraordinary times.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Alabama Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47129824985328,"sku":"9780817390983","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780817390983_p0.jpg?v=1763741825","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780817390983","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}