Numan V. Bartley is E. Merton Coulter Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Georgia. A former president of the Southern Historical Association, he is the author of many works on the South, most recently The New South, 1945-1980.

Originally published in 1969, this work deals with the politics of the southern states' resistance to public school integration. The text documents the opposition to de-segregation in each southern state and clarifies the attitudes underlying the massive resistance to integration.