The Bad Old Days: A Decade of Struggling for Justice in Louisiana is a combination of grassroots history and personal memoir. It recounts the author's experiences as a volunteer leader of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1966, when he founded an ACLU chapter in Baton Rouge, to 1977, when he ended his work as state legislative director. Through a series of "war stories," he details his struggles on multiple fronts, including racial justice, the rights of students, women and the mentally ill, and reform of criminal justice.
By the time the author switched his focus to nuclear disarmament, the Old South, organized around the subordination, exploitation and humiliation of Black people, had been transformed into something more like the rest of the country. That momentous change required the efforts and sacrifices of countless people, most of whose names will never appear in the standard histories of those times.
While the world depicted in these pages is still, unfortunately, recognizable, readers wondering whether there has been any real change in our country will find the book both eye-opening and encouraging.