Author of "Weary Feet, Rested Souls" says visiting Selma was "critical" to his research
The Selma Times Journal, Sunday, March 8, 1998
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Author to sign book and speak at the Civil Rights Institute March 26
By WENDY ISOM
Lifestyle Editor
When author Townsend Davis couldn't find a travel guide on the history of the civil rights movement, he decided to write one.
Now, Davis' book, "Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement," which was published Jan. 19, on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s holiday, is being lauded by such people as the chairman of the National Endowment of the Humanities and Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
Chairman of the National Endowment of the Humanities William Ferris said, “Davis has given us a key to historic Southern worlds that will be a priceless treasure for every American.”
Davis will be speaking and signing his book at the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Thursday, March 26 at 6 p.m. The discussion is free and open to the public.
In an interview from his New York home, Davis reflected on his book journey. In 1991, Davis landed his first job after law school as law clerk in Savannah, Ga.
As part of the job, he traveled to many historic Southern towns. One trip to Birmingham when Davis had a "free afternoon," he decided to visit some civil rights sites. There was only one problem - he didn't have a civil rights guide.
After asking some of the right people, he found out that the hotel he was staying in was only four blocks away from the Sixteenth Street Church where the '60s bombing had killed four little girls.
Davis, 34, who grew up in New York, said he always had an interest in civil rights and thought that "northerners were pretty ignorant of the geographical (history of the civil rights," adding that the people he knew tended to lump all the incidents together: the marches the beatings and the protests.
However, by highlighting hundreds of sites throughout the South in his book, "some sell known and some far off the beaten track," Davis said he provided the uniqueness and geography of each town, adding that every town from Arkansas to Alabama has their own civil rights story.
In all of Davis' travels and the 30,000 miles he put on his car, the author said "Selma was absolutely critical to my project," adding that Selma was the sample chapter he used to present to his publisher W.W. Norton.
The first time Davis drove to Selma in 1993 still researching for his book idea, he was so excited he said he had to pull over at a gas station on Broad Street and call his friends in Atlanta.
"Selma just struck me physically as a time capsule…it seemed like a place where history could be very evocative—nothing's been paved over…the jails and the courthouse looked exactly the same…(Mayor) Smitherman was still in office."
Davis said he could've written an entire book just on Selma. "As much as Selma was a time capsule physically, politically, it seemed very balanced," noting the racial make-up of the city council. And all around, Davis enjoyed the Southern hospitality he received in every town, adding that he even gained some weight from the home-cooked meals.
“People were very gracious and nice.” Davis, who works as an attorney in New York, will visit Selma in April with the Majic Bus Civil Rights Tour, adding that, "Weary Feet, Rested Souls," will be the group's guide.
Originally Published: March 8, 1998
Selma Times-Journal
