Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

Many fans of journalist Trillin might not associate him with the civil rights movement, but this work is here to remind us that the complications of race in America have always been a vehicle for his sharp writing and criticism. In his introduction, the author explains his ambivalence about being labeled a hero of the Freedom Rides when he was covering them for Time in the 1960s. These New Yorker essays span the gamut from a long piece on a fizzled boycott of the Zulu Mardi Gras parade to a recent racially charged murder trial on Long Island. The most striking is a simple transcript of black voting rights activist Victoria DeLee's life story in a dated Southern dialect. While each of these essays are interesting in their own right, many meander with trivial details, and Trillin does not make much of a case for their cohesiveness or why the compilation is really necessary.