Gillespie shines light on unsung civil rights efforts

Dr. Dee Gillespie, a University of North Georgia (UNG) professor of history, has published a book titled "The Citizenship Education Program and Black Women's Political Culture."

She said most people know the major moments of the civil rights movement, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka school desegregation case and the Selma march.

"In this book, I seek to turn our attention to the lesser-known places where this movement happened," Gillespie said. "I want to put Black women front and center in the story."

One example was the Citizenship Education Program (CEP), a grassroots initiative that taught people to read and write in preparation for literacy tests required for voter registration.

"They then used that foundation to support broader reform," Gillespie said.

Drawing on teachers' reports and correspondence, oral history interviews, and papers from a variety of civil rights organizations, the book follows the growth of the CEP from its beginnings in the South Carolina Sea Islands to southeastern Georgia, the Mississippi Delta, and Alabama's Black Belt.

The University of Florida Press released Gillespie's book in August.