Speak Now Against the Day

John Egerton (1935-2013), an independent nonfiction writer, wrote extensively on his native South. He is author of more than a dozen books, including The Americanization of Dixie and Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History.
For more information about John Egerton, visit the Author Page.

"Make room on your library shelf . . . for John Egerton's magnificent Speak Now Against the Day. His book is a stunning achievement: a sprawling, engrossing, deeply moving account of those Southerners, black and white, who raised their voices to challenge the South's racial mores. . . . [This] is an eloquent and passionate book, and . . . one we cannot afford to forget."--Charles B. Dew, New York Times Book Review

"Rich and compelling. . . . For anyone interested in the emergence of the civil rights movement or anyone who simply loves a well-written history, Speak Now Against the Day is a must read."--Journal of Southwest Georgia History

"Here at last is the story of the South"s visionaries, its prophets, its unsung heroes--the men and women, black and white, who tried to tell us, long before Brown vs. Board of Education, that segregation was a cancer on the American soul. . . . This is a book the South and the nation have been waiting for, have sorely needed, for the past half-century."--Vernon Jordan, former president of The Urban League

"A rich and inspiring story. . . . [Egerton] has uncovered a buried treasure."--Studs Terkel

"A wonderfully readable, thoughtful, and engaging narrative that brilliantly renders the years that immediately preceded the civil rights era in the South."--Robert Coles

"[A] superb book, measured but eloquent."--Dan T. Carter, Washington Post Book World