This well-researched volume explores how the Black freedom struggle and the anti–Vietnam War movement dovetailed with faculty and student activism in the South to undermine the traditional role of higher education and bring about social change. It uses the battles between students, faculty, presidents, trustees, elected officials, and funding agencies to explain how Black and White southern campuses transformed themselves into reputable academic centers. No matter the type of institution, these battles represented cracks in the edifice of the Old South and precipitated wide-ranging changes in southern higher education and society as well. This thought-provoking history offers scholars and others interested in institutional autonomy and the value of civil society a deep understanding of the central role that institutions of higher education can play in social and political change and the vital importance of independent institutions during times of national crisis.

“The riveting prose and well-researched narrative tell the stories of the past while also teaching lessons for today.”
—Marybeth Gasman, University of Pennsylvania

“A must-read for every serious student of higher education, academic freedom, free speech, civil rights, student protest, and southern history.”
—Robert Cohen, New York University

“Takes us back to a recent period in the American South in which the suppression of speech was commonplace in government and in the routines of everyday life.”
—James D. Anderson, University of Illinois