To Do Justice

“White southerners who were on the right side of civil rights history when it literally put their survival on the line have never been fully recognized. Partly, of course, this is because they were supporting players in the African American freedom movement. But also their example shatters the excuse of the great majority of Good Southerners who claimed they went along with segregation because they had no choice. Robert Hughes, a white Alabamian, joined forces with his fellow young minister Martin Luther King Jr. early in the revolution during the 1955–56 Montgomery Bus Boycott and joined the global struggle against apartheid in Southern Rhodesia after being exiled from Alabama. Randall Jimerson’s fine biography of Hughes brings context and rich detail to a life of moral courage impressive to this day.”
—Diane McWhorter, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama—The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution

“Bob Hughes is a remarkable figure, not to mention a paradigmatic example of a white southerner in the civil rights movement. Few books focus on one white person’s impact on the civil rights movement. Jimerson’s study does so in an engaging and illuminating way.”
—Stephen R. Haynes, author of The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation
 

“To Do Justice calls attention to a key but heretofore unsung figure who labored heroically in the midst of two related social/political revolutions. Bob Hughes deserves a place in the literature that connects these movements.”
—Carolyn Renée Dupont, author of Mississippi Praying: Southern White Evangelicals and the Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1975

“Robert Hughes played a crucial role in the unfolding civil rights movement in Alabama. Now at last we have a full account of his remarkable career.”
—J. Mills Thornton III, author of Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma