Review: The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill

So crowded is the roster of American civil-rights heroes that even quite estimable figures can fade, unjustly, from memory. In this poignant memoir, Helen Shores Lee and Barbara Shores do their part to stop their father's legacy from following a similar trajectory. Arthur Shores, who died in 1996, was one of the first black lawyers to practice in Alabama. Instrumental in the push for desegregation at that state's flagship university, among other legal campaigns, Shores became the first black member of Birmingham's city council in 1969. His daughters recall an abiding faith that propelled his work for racial equality and helped him persevere through several episodes of violence.

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