Black Confederates]]> This book examines African Americans and the Confederate war effort. ]]> 2001]]> Allen W. Trelease's classic, groundbreaking 1971 study of the birth of the Klan during Reconstruction.]]> 1971; 1972]]> A great book by native Alabamian Prof. Richard Bailey, who has lectured several times in Florence, on black officeholders such as Florence native and Republican Congressman (1873-1875) James T. Rapier (1838-1883) during Reconstruction in Alabama.

This book provides an in-depth look at the struggles of blacks in Alabama to become a part of a political system that up until then had denied them that right. It sheds particular light upon the political gains made by the freedmen in Alabama from the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction up through the late 1870s and early 1880s. It tracks the political advances made by black Republican officeholders against a majority white Democratic establishment keen on courting blacks away from the GOP in order to regain and bolster it own power. However the book also examines black education in Alabama during Reconstruction, as black educational opportunities arose alongside political opportunities, and chronicles the founding and early history of several notable black colleges and universities in Alabama.

The book is heavily foot-noted, indexed, and contains a large bibliography and many black and white photos. The appendices contain, among other things, an alphabetical list of black officeholders in Alabama 1867-1884.]]>
1993]]>
Black Southerners in Confederate Armies: A Collection of Historical Accounts ]]> Florence historian Lee Freeman notes that this book "examines multiple facets of the service of blacks on behalf of the Confederate war effort. The cover is of three Lauderdale County, AL black Confederate cooks/body-servants, from l, George W. Seawright, Reuben Patterson and Peter Stewart at the annual 1921 Mars Hill United Confederate Veterans Reunion. "]]> 2006]]> Blacks in Blue and Gray: Afro-American Service in the Civil War ]]> This book discusses the role of African Americans in both the United States Army and the Confederate Army during the Civil War.]]> 1979]]> The Confederate Negro: Virginia's Craftsmen and Military Laborers, 1861-1865]]> This is one of the first books to examine African Americans in the Confederacy.]]> 1969]]> A History of Mt. Zion AME Church of Lauderdale County, AL compiled by member Mrs. Anita Cobb.]]> 2006]]> Black Catholics in the United States]]> Florence historian Lee Freeman: "A nice overview of black Catholics in the US from Colonial times to the present. Contains information on the antebellum black Catholic population of Mobile. In the mid-1940s Florence African-American businesswoman Bessie McAlister Foster (1882-1963) converted from Methodism to Catholicism and was instrumental in helping to establish Blessed Martin De Porres Negro Mission, which was pastored by Rev. Fr. Isidore Fussnecker, OSB of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Florence."
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1990]]>
The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation ]]> This book examines Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne's proposal to arm the slaves and free them after the war and the firestorm of debate which ensued.]]> 1972]]> Let Not Your Heart Be Hardened]]> This book tells the story of Joe Louis Duster, who grew up in Florence Alabama and became the city's first African American firefighter in 1981.]]> 2013]]>