The arson attacks in early 2006 on a number of small Baptist churches in rural Alabama recalled the rash of burnings at dozens of predominantly black houses of worship in the South during the mid-1990s. One of the churches struck by probable arson in 1996 was Little Zion Baptist Church in Boligee, Alabama. This book draws on the voices and memories of church members to share a previously undocumented history of Little Zion, from its beginnings as a brush arbor around the time of emancipation, to its key role in the civil rights movement, to its burning and rebuilding with the help of...