Description:
A Carpetbagger in Reverse is a revelatory biography of Arthur W. Mitchell, the first Black Democrat elected to the U.S. Congress and a pivotal--yet largely forgotten--figure in American political history. Born in Alabama to formerly enslaved parents, Mitchell rose from poverty to become a lawyer, educator, and congressman who challenged segregation, advocated for civil rights, and reshaped Black political identity during the Great Depression and Jim Crow era. Drawing from Mitchell's personal papers and public writings, John Morris Knapp offers a nuanced portrait of a man whose controversial strategies and enduring legacy demand a reassessment of the Black freedom struggle in the twentieth century.
Review Quotes:
" [The book] resurrects the life and career of a long-lost twentieth-century political and civil rights leader. It also brings to light a native Alabamian scarcely known to most people today." --Alabama Writers Forum
"A Carpetbagger in Reverse offers an engaging and well-written account of the life of Arthur Wergs Mitchell. . . . Knapp's study offers a corrective account of Mitchell's life and work that seeks to acknowledge this path-breaking Black politician's many talents and accomplishments without ignoring his faults." --Mia Bay is author of the Bancroft Prize winning book Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance