Posted on February 5, 2004 at 2:35 p.m.

Expert available to discuss civil rights movement in Miami

STORY:

In his new book, South of the South: Jewish Activists and the Civil Rights Movement in Miami, 1945-1960, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) historian Raymond A. Mohl, Ph.D., presents readers with an original interpretation of the role of Jewish civil rights activists in promoting racial change in post-World War II Miami.

WHAT:

South of the South examines the role of Miami Jews in civil rights through the careers of two Jewish women, Matilda Graff and Shirley Zoloth. Graff, who worked with the Miami Chapter of the Civil Rights Congress, was instrumental in the organization’s stand against the Ku Klux Klan. Zoloth helped to launch a lunch counter sit-in campaign — a year before the more famous sit-ins of 1960 — that resulted in the desegregation of downtown public accommodations.

Mohl writes, “[Graff and Zoloth’s] activist work exemplified an important aspect of the history and character of Miami’s civil rights movement. … Their stories are central to a larger narrative about racial reform in Florida’s emerging Sunbelt city.”

HOW:

Mohl used original documents written by both women, including Graff’s autobiographical memoir, to demonstrate the level of Jewish activism in Miami, especially by women, that was unique for the postwar, American South. “Historians have often written about Martin Luther King Jr., the NAACP and other national organizations, providing a top-down history of the civil rights movement,” Mohl said. “But that doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s a bigger story that starts at the bottom and isn’t connected to other cities or national groups, except in a tenuous way. There were many civil rights movements going on around the country involving local, indigenous leaders.”

CALL:

For interviews, call Gail Short, UAB Media Relations, (205) 934-8931 or e-mail at gshort@uab.edu. For review copies of South of the South, contact the University Press of Florida at www.upf.com.