Frye Gaillard Explores Social and Political Movements of the 1960’s in “A Hard Rain”

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In this episode 232, we visit with Frye Gaillard, the award-winning author of “A Hard Rain: America in the 1960’s, Our Decade of Hope, Possibility, and Innocence Lost,” a reconstruction and remembrance of the transcendent era of the 1960’s.

Gaillard explores tragedy and hope through the political and social movements of the times, from civil rights to Black power, feminism, and the Vietnam war protests, as well as the arts, literature, science, and religion.

Howell Raines, former executive editor of the New York Times and winner of the Pulitzer Prize had this to say about the book, “A child of the Sixties and one of the leading civil rights reporters of his generation, Frye Gaillard has given us a riveting tour along what he calls the fine line between history and journalism… A Hard Rain is essential reading for a time when an American president has willfully ignored the hard-earned lessons from our passage through the most tumultuous decade of social change since the Civil War.”

Connect With the Author 

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About the Author:

Frye Gaillard, writer in residence at the University of South Alabama and former Southern Editor at the Charlotte Observer, is the author of more than 30 books, exploring themes of social justice and Southern music, religion, politics, and culture. His award-winning titles have ranged across the genres of history, memoir, journalism, and historical novels for young readers.

Three of his books have been adapted as public television documentaries, and Gaillard has co-authored the script for two of those, including the Emmy-winning “In the Path of the Storms.” Gaillard has co-written songs that have made the U.S. folk and country music charts and appeared in nationally distributed music videos and documentary films, and his byline has appeared in such publications as The Bitter Southerner, The Oxford American, The Washington Post, Sojourners, Journal of American History, Outside Magazine, The Progressive, Parade, and Alabama Heritage.

Gaillard has served as writer in residence for the Honors College at Johnson C. Smith University (HBCU), and Queens University in Charlotte, NC. His other recognitions have included the Clarence Cason Award, the Eugene Current-Garcia Award, and the Alabama Governor’s Award for the Arts.

​He has contributed to anthologies published by Oxford University Press, the University of North Carolina Press, the University of Alabama Press, and the University Press of Mississippi.

Additional Titles

  • Live as if…A Teacher’s Story
  • Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music
  • Race, Rock, & Religion: Profiles From a Southern Journalist
  • A Dream Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Southern Voices: Profiles and Other Stories
  • Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America

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