His book is a stunning achievement: a sprawling, engrossing, deeply moving account of those Southerners, black and white, who raised their voices to challenge the South's racial mores during the years from 1932 to 1954 when the brackish currents of Jim Crow were running at flood tide.

Some critics have dismissed Harris's fiction as domestic or sentimental, but others find nuanced social and cultural critique in her works, especially of the South's gender and racial mores.

Yet right from the beginning, the entertainment industry has lagged society in its racial mores.

Many readers responded to Peter Applebome's July 23 Soapbox column about racial mores and suburban manners at a gas station in Westchester County.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in rigidly segregated Anniston, Alabama, Braden grew up in a white middle-class family that accepted southern racial mores wholeheartedly.

When last heard from, we were assaying suburban manners and racial mores at a gas station in Millwood with a 9-year-old daughter in the back seat of the car and high-voltage, high-profanity rap blasting out of the car at the next gas pump.