OXFORD,
Miss. – In 1969, as hatred and violence spread across the South, the
U.S. Supreme Court mandated that public schools be fully integrated.
That
same year, University of Mississippi graduate David Beckwith began to
chronicle his days as a school teacher in Leland, Miss. Forty years
later, Beckwith has transformed his diary into the book “A New Day in
the Delta: Inventing School Desegregation as You Go” (University of
Alabama Press, 2009).
“The book concerns my experiences as one
of the first white teachers assigned to an all-black school in the
Mississippi Delta,” Beckwith said. “It’s an intriguing, dramatic human
interest story.”
Beckwith is scheduled to sign his book at 5 p.m. Friday (April 3) at Square Books in Oxford.
“David’s
accurate account of his experience will be invaluable to the history of
this time,” said Andrew Mullins, UM executive assistant to the
chancellor and associate professor of education. “The book provides a
significant and interesting contribution to the history of
desegregation in Mississippi’s public education system.”
A
fourth-generation Mississippian and Greenville native, Beckwith
received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration
from Ole Miss. He has spent most of his professional career in the
securities industry and is a vice president and financial adviser with
Morgan Stanley. He resides in Vero Beach and Little Torch Key, Fla.