From lesser-known state figures to the ancestors of Oprah Winfrey, Morgan Freeman, and James Meredith, Mississippi Zion: The Struggle for Liberation in Attala County, 1865-1915 brings the voices and experiences of everyday people to the forefront and reveals a history dictated by people rather than eras. Author Evan Howard Ashford, a native of the county, examines how African Americans in Attala County, after the Civil War, shaped economic, social, and political politics as a non-majority racial group. At the same time, Ashford provides a broader view of Black life occurring throughout the state during the same period.

By examining southern African American life mainly through Reconstruction and the civil rights movement, historians have long mischaracterized African Americans in Mississippi by linking their empowerment and progression solely to periods of federal assistance. This book shatters that model and reframes the postslavery era as a Liberation Era to examine how African Americans pursued land, labor, education, politics, community building, and progressive race relations to position themselves as societal equals. This in-depth perspective captures the spectrum of African American experiences that contradict and nuance how historians write, analyze, and interpret Southern African American life in the postslavery era.

The book is published by University Press of Mississippi. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"Reveals that African Americans in Mississippi were extremely active in politics, academics, and social progressivism, working to transform Mississippi into a modern progressive state." (Abel A. Bartley, Clemson University)