In No Ways Tired: The NAACP's Struggle to Integrate the Duval County Public School System

Book excerpt: Abel Bartley's new book "In No Ways Tired" is both the unique story of a particular Florida community's struggle with the integration of public schools, and a reflection of similar experiences throughout the South where integration "with all deliberate speed" took decades to achieve. In this case study of a presumed "New South" metropolis, Professor Bartley adds a significant contribution to the growing body of scholarship debunking the long-held notion that Florida has been an historical exception to the rabid racism of the Deep South. As this work demonstrates, in unison with other recent pioneering works, the Sunshine State has not earned its popular reputation for being a "moderate" entity of Dixie on race relations, particularly in regard to its troubling and sometimes bloody odyssey of public school desegregation. This book should be in the library of anyone interested in African American history, the Civil Rights era, or the development of our public education system.