University Of Memphis: UofM's Hooks Institute Welcomes Richard Saunders As Visiting Scholar To Research Fayette County Civil Rights Move ...

Press release from the University of Memphis:

June 24, 2021

About Richard Saunders 

Dr. Richard Saunders is an academic librarian and former Dean of Library Services
at Southern Utah University. A graduate of Utah State University, he holds a library
degree from Brigham Young University and a PhD from the University of Memphis. As
a PhD student, Saunders researched tensions and interactions in the Fayette civil
rights movement and authored a dissertation on the subject. 

About Richard Saunders' Research Project 

Saunders’ fellowship project explores the broader issues of economic and social change
growing from postwar modernization in the rural South, using Fayette and Haywood counties
as examples. He considers a broad swath of time and experience between the end of
traditional cotton-based "New South" culture in 1940 and the effects of deregulation
in 1990. Saunders argues that while people were both the agents and casualties of
change, the communities were reshaped by forces much larger than themselves. Crop
succession, local economic development, social experience, political values, class,
race and infrastructure (such as labor and transportation) all reflect and shape rural
experience across the period. 

About the Civil Rights Movement of Fayette County, Tennessee 

The Fayette County Civil Rights Movement was a true grassroots movement that includes
a series of civil rights events that took place in Fayette County, Tenn. from 1959
into the early 1970s. One of those major efforts — registering black residents to
vote — led to what was called Tent City. As a result of registering to vote, many
black residents were evicted from the sharecropper housing that had been home to some
families for generations. Ultimately, numerous families had to move into one of two
Tent Cities erected on donated land — some living there for more than two years. In
addition, black residents who registered to vote were blacklisted by whites from purchasing
goods and services necessary to survive day-to-day, such as milk, eggs, fuel and even
medical care. 

About the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change 

The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute implements its mission of teaching, studying and promoting
civil rights and social change through research, education and direct intervention
programs. Institute programs include community outreach; funding faculty research
initiatives on community issues; implementing community service projects; hosting
conferences, symposiums and lectures; and promoting local and national scholarship
on civil and human rights. The Hooks Institute is an interdisciplinary center at the
University of Memphis. Contributed revenue for the Hooks Institute, including funding
from individuals, corporations and foundations, is administered through the University
of Memphis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, visit memphis.edu/benhooks. 

This press release was produced by the University of Memphis. The views expressed here are the author’s own.