An African American journalist by the name of Carl Rowan recounts in his book, South of Freedom, his six thousand mile journey through the south in 1951. Rowan was a journalist for the Minneapolis Tribune and reported in depth on the Civil Rights Movement which led him to write his first book South of Freedom in which he talked about racial divide from all over America. After the civil war the racial divide became greater and segregation became a social norm which created even worsening tension between whites and African Americans. South of Freedom examines in great detail the culture of fear that developed from ignorance and lack of understanding of things that different or not normal. The intimate nature of Rowan’s journalism is what makes it so enticing to the reader, human emotion and experience is very evident in Rowan’s writing which gives a personal connection to the men and women Rowan talked to on his journey, nothing was held back and it gave us an incredible …show more content…
Even those who were not explicitly racist were beside themselves enough to not do anything about discrimination. In an account with a theatre operator about why African Americans were not permitted to perform the operator explained that, “[it’s] custom and law. If Congress hasn’t guts enough to change that, why should I stick my neck out?” (Rowan 76) which sets a huge tone for the book. Either you are racist and practice racist acts or you don’t consider yourself a racist but you don’t care enough to do anything about it, which is arguably worse because knowing something is wrong and letting it still happen is the bystander affect which does no good