Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr [Paperback]

Virginia Foster Durr (Author), Hollinger F. Barnard (Editor), Studs Terkel (Foreword)

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: The University of Alabama Press; Paperback edition (June 30, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817305173
• ISBN-13: 978-0817305178
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #550,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outside the Magic Circle, September 10, 2009

By 

Carolyn M. Zeanah - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr (Paperback)

For one who is interested in history, history of the Civil Rights Movement, especially in the state of Alabama this is a must read.

As she tells about her mother and father and of growing up in Alabama in the days of black workers in the home,she introduces someone that is not familiar with the south and the times to what that was like.

Viginia and her husband Clifford Durr, an attorney lived in Montgomery during the time that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. When they befriended Rosa their life was forever changed.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Original Southern Women, April 30, 2009

By 

Sean Mulligan (Alpharetta, Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr (Paperback)

Outside the Magic Circle gives the background on the life of Virginia Durr, and how she, a conventional southern belle ended up as a prominent Civil Rights activist. Mrs. Durr talks about how she began to question the ideas of white supremacy and Southern Traditions that she was brought up with. She mentions her brother in law Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and other Washington politicos such as Harold Ickes, and Eleanor Roosevelt that she met over the years.

She tells of how redbaiting damaged the fight for civil rights and how the red scare which started under Truman and helped to create McCarthy paralyzed America.

Although Mrs. Durr was happy about the abolition of segregation, she knew that integration didn't solve all of America's problems and that America is still divided by race and class.