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The life and times of Alabama folk potter Jerry Brown, as told in his own words

Born in 1942, Jerry Brown helped out in his father’s pottery shop as a young boy. There he learned the methods and techniques for making pottery in a family tradition dating back to the 1830s. His responsibilities included tending the mule that drove the mill that was used to mix clay (called “mud” by traditional potters). Business suffered as demand for stoneware churns, jugs, and chamber pots waned in the postwar years, and manufacture ceased following the deaths of Brown’s father and brother in the mid-1960s. Brown turned to logging for his livelihood, his skill with mules proving useful in working difficult and otherwise inaccessible terrain. In the early 1980s, he returned to the family trade and opened a new shop that relied on the same methods of production with which he had grown up, including a mule-powered mill for mixing clay and the use of a wood-fired rather than gas-fueled kiln.

Folklorist Joey Brackner met Brown in 1983, and the two quickly became close friends who collaborated together on a variety of documentary and educational projects in succeeding years—efforts that led to greater exposure, commercial success, and Brown’s recognition as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts. For years, Brown spoke of the urge to write his life story, but he never set pen to paper. In 2015, Brackner took the initiative and interviewed Brown, recording his life story over the course of a weekend at Brown’s home. Of Mules and Mud is the result of that marathon interview session, conducted one year before Brown passed away.

Brackner has captured Jerry Brown’s life in his own words as recounted that weekend, lightly edited and elaborated. Of Mules and Mud is illustrated with photos from all phases of Brown’s life, including a color gallery of 28 photos of vessel forms made by Brown throughout his career that collectors of folk pottery will find invaluable.
 

A forgotten classic of African American life, identity, and resilience in rural Alabama.

Ollie Miss by George Wylie Henderson is a landmark work of African American fiction that offers a vivid portrayal of rural Black life in Alabama during the early twentieth century. Set in the backwoods communities of Macon County, Alabama, the novel follows the journey of Ollie Miss, a young woman determined to find purpose, independence, and personal fulfillment in a world shaped by poverty, isolation, and limited opportunities. Through her struggles and aspirations, Henderson creates a compelling portrait of individual resilience and self-discovery.

More than a personal story, Ollie Miss serves as an important social document, preserving the customs, relationships, and daily realities of a Black Southern community before the transformative changes brought about by the Civil Rights Movement. Henderson's richly detailed narrative captures the rhythms of rural life, the bonds of community, and the challenges faced by African Americans in the segregated South. At the same time, the novel explores universal themes of loneliness, belonging, love, and the search for dignity.

Originally published in 1935 during the era of the Harlem Renaissance, Ollie Miss stands today as a rediscovered classic that broadens our understanding of African American literary history. Both a moving coming-of-age story and an invaluable cultural record, the novel remains essential reading for anyone interested in Southern literature, Black history, women's experiences, and the rich diversity of American fiction.

How a North Alabama river fueled a national showdown over power, democracy, and the New Deal

Origins of the TVA: The Muscle Shoals Controversy, 1920–1932 is the definitive history of the bitter, decade-long struggle that gave rise to the Tennessee Valley Authority, one of the most consequential experiments in American public policy. Centered on Muscle Shoals, Alabama, this book traces how wartime investments in nitrates and hydropower became the focal point for national debates over public versus private power, regional planning, agricultural reform, and the proper role of the federal government. 

In an era grappling with industrial transformation and sectional inequality, the story of Muscle Shoals illuminates why the TVA emerged as a landmark solution with global influence. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources—more than twenty-five congressional hearings, the Congressional Record, private manuscripts, National Archives collections, and contemporary journalism—historian Preston J. Hubbard delivers a model of scholarly rigor and balance. Originally published in 1961 and still unmatched in scope, the book is widely praised for its restraint, clarity, and meticulous reconstruction of complex political, economic, and technological issues. 

Hubbard demonstrates how a small group of lawmakers led by Senator George W. Norris ultimately shaped a durable vision of public power and regional development. This book will reward historians, political scientists, policy professionals, and students of Southern history, as well as readers interested in the origins of the New Deal, environmental policy, and the enduring debate over public resources and private enterprise.

WINNER OF THE LILLIAN SMITH BOOK AWARD

The story of faith, sacrifice, and moral courage in Alabama's fight for civil rights.

Outside Agitator tells the powerful, largely forgotten story of Jonathan Daniels—a white Episcopal seminarian from New England who answered the call of the civil rights movement and paid for that commitment with his life. In 1965, Daniels left the safety of Harvard and Cambridge for Selma and Alabama’s Black Belt, where he worked alongside Black activists to challenge segregation, register voters, and confront the moral failures of church and state. His murder by a white segregationist shocked the nation and exposed the deadly cost of racial injustice—and of moral courage. 

More than a biography, this book asks urgent questions that still resonate: What does it mean to act on conscience in a society structured by inequality? What responsibilities do faith, citizenship, and privilege impose? Historian Charles W. Eagles places Daniels’s life within the turbulent final phase of the southern civil rights movement, revealing the everyday fears, ethical dilemmas, and racial tensions behind the iconic events of Selma and Lowndes County. 

Outside Agitator will appeal to readers interested in civil rights history, religious activism, Southern history, and the moral dimensions of political struggle. It is essential reading for students, scholars, clergy, and general readers seeking to understand how individual lives can illuminate—and challenge—the ongoing fight for justice and equality.

Winner of the Alabama Library Author Award

Outside the Magic Circle tells the remarkable story of Virginia Foster Durr, a southern white woman born into privilige who (along with her husband Clifford Durr, a lawyer best known for defending Rosa Parks), nonetheless devoted her life to Civil Rights activism.

Outside the Magic Circle is the powerful and deeply personal autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr, a Southern woman who defied the expectations of her privileged upbringing to become one of the most courageous voices for civil rights and social justice in 20th-century America. Born into a wealthy, white Alabama family, Durr was raised in a world steeped in segregation and conservative values. Yet through a journey marked by moral reckoning, intellectual awakening, and political activism, she stepped outside the “magic circle” of Southern gentility to confront the injustices that shaped her world.

With a foreword by renowned oral historian Studs Terkel, this memoir captures Durr’s transformation from reluctant conformist to outspoken advocate. Her story spans decades of American history—from the Great Depression and New Deal politics to the McCarthy era and the Civil Rights Movement. Alongside her husband, attorney Clifford Durr, Virginia became a key figure in progressive circles, working to abolish the poll tax, defend civil liberties, and support Black activists in the segregated South.

Told in Durr’s own voice, the narrative is rich with anecdotes, reflections, and encounters with historical figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. It is both a personal reckoning and a political document, offering rare insight into the inner conflicts of white Southern liberals and the cost of dissent in a deeply divided society.

Outside the Magic Circle is more than a memoir—it is a testament to the power of conscience, the courage of transformation, and the enduring fight for justice. It remains a vital resource for readers interested in civil rights history, feminist thought, and the complexities of Southern identity.