The Kings of Mississippi

Sandra L. Barnes is a Sociology Professor in the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University and the first female African American Assistant Vice Chancellor. She is the author of Empowering Black Youth of Promise, Live Long and Prosper, and The Costs of Being Poor. Benita Blanford-Jones develops and leads several urban youth empowerment and educational mentoring programs. She also holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and a Master's degree in Human Services Administration from Indiana University Northwest.

• 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.

'This provocative, well-crafted book greatly extends research on Black families rooted in and migrating from the Deep South. Barnes and Blanford-Jones provide a revealing socio-ecological window of understanding into the worlds of Black families over generations of constructing lives in the face of white racism and poverty. From richly detailed interviews, we see these courageous Americans proactively and often successfully drawing on landed, religious (Black churches), educational (Black schools), and resistance (counter-framing) capital to not only surmount omnipresent barriers to individual and family mobility but also help build a much better America.' Joe Feagin, Texas A & M University and author of Racist America