Why is racism still with us, and what can the Civil Rights Movement tell us about today? David Billings, a self-described “son of the South,” tackles these questions in his well-researched, deeply personal and eminent new audio book, Deep Denial: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life.

Part I of Deep Denial, takes a broad historical view. Part II features the Civil Rights Movement, how it emerged in the post-WWII era, how the struggle was waged in the 1950s and ‘60s, and how it subsequently morphed from a community-led, issue-based movement to a government-sponsored, needs-based nonprofit industry that remains with us today.

Known to thousands as a master storyteller, Billings begins each chapter with an intimate and unsparingly personal account from his own life. After drawing the listener into his topic, he lays out the historical facts, while still retaining the storyteller’s sense of engagement with the listener.

This masterful nonfiction narrative is told by a white man who has spent half a century working for racial justice. Born and raised in McComb, Mississippi, through a series of life experiences, Billings became one of the founding members of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, a New Orleans-based organization led by people of color and the premier anti-racism training group in the country. Since then Billings has trained tens of thousands of people, of all races, on the very questions he writes about.

In 2016 he published Deep Denial, which so many had been waiting for. The audio book, seven years later, includes an additional epilogue that brings the story up to the current day, where white supremacy has again emerged as an overt challenge to our Democracy.

Deep Denial has never been more relevant and crucial to building a genuine movement for racial justice.