Struggle for a Better South The Southern Student Organizing Committee, 1964-1969

Struggle for a Better South dispels the notion that all whites in the South stood united against social change in the 1960s. Gregg Michel's compelling study of the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC), the leading progressive organization created by young white activists in the South during that tumultuous decade, fills a crucial gap in the literature about New Left activism. Michel shows that the SSOC was the only activist group of the era that worked to cultivate white support for the social movement. The SSOC's members gave themselves the delicate task of reconciling their love for the South and its history - warts and all - with their modern-day commitment to equality and justice for all people.

Introduction * White Southerners, Civil Rights, and Student Activism, 1961-1964 * Building an Organization: The Founding of SSOC * Growing Pains * SSOC and White Student Activists at Mid-Decade: The Agenda Grows * Shifting Ground: From the Campus to the Community * New Message, New Messengers * Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Costs * Falling Apart: The Dissolution of SSOC * Appendix: "We'll Take Our Stand"

Gregg L. Michel is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio.