The Kings of Mississippi

Race, Religious Education, and the Making of a Middle-Class Black Family in the Segregated South

Sandra L. Barnes, Benita Blanford-Jones

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781108424066
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108337335
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

Kings of Mississippi examines how a twentieth-century black middle-class family navigated life in rural Mississippi. The book introduces seven generations of a farming family and provides an organic examination of how the family experienced life and economic challenges as one of few middle-class black families living and working alongside the many struggling black and white sharecroppers and farmers in Gallman, Mississippi. Family narratives and census data across time and a socio-ecological lens help assess how race, religion, education, and key employment options influenced economic and non-economic outcomes. Family voices explain how intangible beliefs fueled socioeconomic outcomes despite racial, gender, and economic stratification. The book also examines the effects of stratification changes across time, including: post-migration; inter- and intra-racial conflicts and compromises; and, strategic decisions and outcomes. The book provides an unexpected glimpse at how a family's ethos can foster upward mobility into the middle-class.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introduction A Black Family from Mississippi as a Socio-Ecological Phenomenon
• 1 “My Own Land and a Milk Cow”: Race, Space, Class, and Gender as Embedded Elements of a Black Southern Terrain
• 2 “Bikes or Lights”: Familial Decisions in the Context of Inequality
• 3 “Getting to the School on Time”: Formal Education and Beyond
• 4 “Jesus and the Juke Joint”: Blurred and Bordered Boundaries and Boundary Crossing
• 5 “Keeping God’s Favor”: Contemporary Black Families and Systemic Change
• Conclusion “What Would Big Mama Do?” Activation and Routinization of a Black Family’s Ethos
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index