McWhorter's magisterial narrative tells the story of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, from the '50s through the '60s. In the tradition of such histories as Parting the Water and Walking in the Wind, Carry Me Home" documents the real story of integrating the South. It tells the story of the city called Bombingham, from the fifties through the sixties. It focuses on the black freedom fighters as well as those who resisted them--country-club...

In the spring and summer of 1961, several hundred Americans - blacks and whites, men and women - converged on Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge state segregation laws. The Freedom Riders, as they came to be known, were determined to open up the South to civil rights: it was illegal for bus and train stations to discriminate, but most did so and were not interested in change. Over three hundred people were arrested and convicted of the charge "breach...