The Activist Turn in American Studies: A Pragmatic Response from the South

Extract

My vision for the future of southern studies is for the field to develop as a site of activism. Since comparative civil rights scholarship and a focus on radical activism in the South are on the rise, I hope that work in these areas can teach us lessons about how to act on our ideas, to convert manifestos into practice. Any scholar of, or participant in, sixties (in the extended, poetic sense of the term) activism will recognize the frustration that accompanies mobilizing for change. As one of the characters in Toni Cade Bambara's novel The Salt Eaters, a community organizer from Georgia, states, “The dream is real, my friends. The failure to make it work is the unreality” (126). I call for us to reflect on the unreality of our limitations, and I suggest places where we could open dialogue that would push the field forward.