When it comes to issues of race and color of one’s skin, ignorance and racism persist to this day. It’s necessary to make connections from the past to erase the veil of ignorance. In Chance or Circumstance?, author James R. Mapp offers an account of the history of race relations and the road to desegregation and open accommodations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from the 1960s to the present. This memoir tells of people, places, and events that occurred during that tumultuous era. Mapp—a lifetime member of the NAACP—has been entrenched in the movement for racial equality and positive change for more than sixty years. Chance or Circumstance? tells what motivated Mapp and others to endure hardships, sacrifice incomes, and even risk their lives to right a wrong that had oppressed African Americans since slavery. It looks at the effect of Howard School (then, the only high school for Negro students in Chattanooga, Tennessee) and the positive effects on the city that Howard alumni and students have had. Written from an historical and personal perspective, Mapp instills racial pride by revealing the hard work involved in the struggle for civil rights. It details a set of events that played out in this mid-size southern city as students, organizations, and ordinary citizens joined the attack on racial segregation in public accommodations and schools.
