Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution

"Pulitzer Prize-winning Alabama columnist John Archibald reckons with his late father’s silence during the civil rights movement in Birmingham, an epicenter for the struggle. His dad was a Methodist minister; Archibald looks through his old sermons and compares them to events of the day with rich historical detail. The exercise has Archibald turning inward to examine his own choices. “Better to say it wrong than to wonder why you didn’t have anything to say at all,” he writes. Archibald and I are of the same age, faith and region, so I found this a meaningful read that got me thinking about my own family’s legacy."