Consider CultureWatch's Four Gift Book Suggestions: Murder, Assassination, Racial Hatred and Ageism

The Little Rock Nine, meanwhile, were being harassed daily by their fellow students, and even by some teachers. They struggled through the school year, but the following year, referred to as “the Lost Year,” Faubus succeeded persuading the Legislature to close all four public high schools in Little Rock. The ensuing fights brought Little Rock’s situation to a real showdown, with outrageous politicking and fierce verbiage on both sides of the argument. Eventually, however, people of good will won out, and in 1959, the desegregated high schools opened early in an effort to “catch up” the students who had been so ill-served.

And what of Elizabeth and Hazel, the two girls who are the subject of this book? The author has done a prodigious job of research, and it would detract from the reader’s experience to parrot his facts and conclusions here. Suffice it to say that Margolick gives each of the women remarkably even-handed treatment as he recounts their individual courses in life.

Having suffered (and been diagnosed with) Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, long after her days at Central High, Elizabeth has had many difficult times in her life. Her intelligence and character and human dignity, however, remain remarkable.

Hazel married young and never finished high school. Her progression, from the vicious child in the photo to an adult who has done an amazing job of educating herself, is also remarkable. By 1963, she had so changed that she sought out Elizabeth to offer an apology, and thereafter pursued a friendship with her with, over the years, varying degrees of success.

Margolick gives us the history of their long and occasionally fraught relationship, complete with good times and rocky ones. How they have handled both the friendship and the distancing is a long and complex tale, and one not yet resolved.

This is an interesting book, but I have a few caveats concerning the writing itself. From time to time, Margolick veers into purple prose. For instance, describing the photograph of Elizabeth on her solitary walk toward Central High:

“She is slightly out of focus, her expression almost impossible to discern, though if you study it carefully, you notice that her left eyebrow is slightly arched, and her left eye, barely visible behind the sunglasses, betrays a profound sadness — the faint outline of a broken heart.” (p.63)

Looking at that photo is hard enough without that kind of interpretation by the writer. The picture needs no words.

There are also some rather odd phrases that turn up here and there. For instance, when Hazel, just 16, wanted to get married, her fiancé’s family objected to her. They were farmers, and Roman Catholic (Hazel was not). And, adds Margolick, “There were practical considerations, too: Hazel wasn’t big-boned, and therefore was ill-suited for farm work.” One assumes that the quote refers to the family’s claim, not the author’s, but it would be nice if there were some clearer attribution for it. Hazel’s in-laws are certainly entitled to their odd opinions, if indeed this remark represents such opinions. But those of us who think bone size hasn’t got much to do with farming proficiency are entitled to shake our heads, no matter who said it.

Elizabeth and Hazel may remind us of that period when people thought odd things about the size of a woman’s bones, or about the importance of a person’s skin color. It may also remind us of how much racial attitudes in America have changed in our lifetimes, but it also implies how far we still have to go — all of which are worthy reasons to read this book.

Photo: Hazel Bryan (center, in front of man with hat) shouts at Elizabeth Eckford as she walks to school in 1957. Taken by Will Counts, AP. From Indiana University and Wikipedia

Reviewer's Note: If you are interested in the subject, http://www.shmoop.com/civil-rights-desegregation is a good site for learning about the history of segregation, and the landmark events that have shaped this country’s progress toward justice for all.

Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America
By Margaret Morganroth Gullette, © 2011
Published by University of Chicago Press; Hardcover; e-book 294 pp

Assisted Dying: An Ethnographic Murder Mystery on Florida’s Gold Coast
By Serena Nanda and Joan Gregg. © 2011
Published by AltaMira Press/Rowman & Littlefield; Hardcover, Paperback, e-book; 207 pp

Reviewed by Jill Norgren

Margaret Morganroth Gullette is a culture critic and the author of two previous, prize-winning books, Aged by Culture and Declining to Decline. In her latest “manifesto,” Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America, Gullette sets out to show that much of what we think of as the “natural” process of aging is the result of ageism. She argues that men and women can, and should, fight this form of bigotry as actively as we do racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice. Using personal stories (as she has in other books), underreported scientific evidence, statistics from Hurricane Katrina, the current recession, and instructive lessons from works of fiction, she explores the causes and effects of a youth culture that robs many older people of a decent life, and makes growing old wrong in the eyes of many Americans.

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Consider CultureWatch's Four Gift Book Suggestions: Murder, Assassination, Racial Hatred and Ageism

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