Scalawag

Scalawag tells the surprising story of a white
working-class boy who became an unlikely civil rights activist. Born in 1935 in Richmond, where
he was sent to segregated churches and schools, Ed Peeples was taught the ethos and lore of
white supremacy by every adult in his young life. That message came with an equally cruel
one—that, as the child of a wage-earning single mother, he was destined for
failure.

But by age nineteen Peeples became what the whites in his world
called a "traitor to the race." Pushed by a lone teacher to think critically, Peeples
found his way to the black freedom struggle and began a long life of activism. He challenged
racism in his U.S. Navy unit and engaged in sit-ins and community organizing. Later, as a
university professor, he agitated for good jobs, health care, and decent housing for all, pushed
for the creation of African American studies courses at his university, and worked toward equal
treatment for women, prison reform, and more. Peeples did most of his human rights work in his
native Virginia, and his story reveals how institutional racism pervaded the Upper South as much
as the Deep South.

Covering fifty years' participation in the long civil
rights movement, Peeples’s gripping story brings to life an unsung activist culture to
which countless forgotten individuals contributed, over time expanding their commitment from
civil rights to other causes. This engrossing, witty tale of escape from what once seemed
certain fate invites readers to reflect on how moral courage can transform a
life.