I’m pleased to announce that my current book-in-progress has a new title. Southern Communities at War: Essays in Civil War Dissent and Its Legacies, is now The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and […]
Yvonne Bivins critiques THE STATE OF JONES, by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer
Earlier today, Yvonne Bivins sent the following comment to Renegade South. Given her extensive research and her personal connections to the Jones County Knights, I have, with her permission, converted her comment […]
Yvonne Bivins on the Ainsworth-Smith-Knight Connection

Yvonne Bivins has written extensively about her multiracial roots, and I am delighted to share her stories, insights, and family photos here on Renegade South. Because of the towering historical presence of Newt Knight, we’ve heard much about the children […]
Walking the Talk of Multiculturalism
By Sherree Tannen When the moderator of Renegade South, Vikki Bynum, asked me to write an essay for her blog concerning my history, I was honored. I was doubly honored that she […]
Deborah Jiang Stein, Multiracial Muse
A few days ago, the post “Life and Death of Davis Knight,” received a visit and comment from Deborah Jiang Stein. Noting that she has her own blog, I decided to check it […]
Post on Nancy Brewer, a Free Woman of Color
For those of you interested in North Carolina Civil War history, please visit my latest post at Robert Moore’s Southern Unionists Chronicles. Nancy Brewer’s application for compensation from the federal government for property […]
Race and the “One Drop Rule” in the Post-Reconstruction South
By Vikki Bynum Many people, perhaps most, think of “race” as an objective reality. Historically, however, racial categorization has been unstable, contradictory, and arbitrary. Consider the term “passing.” Most of us immediately […]
The Multiracial Knight Women During the 20th Century

By Vikki Bynum Newt Knight’s political career was short-circuited by his open embrace of his mixed-race descendants. The essay, “Negotiating Boundaries of Race and Gender in Jim Crow Mississippi,” which appears as […]
An American Family: The Multiracial Knight Community

By Vikki Bynum After posting my blog about Serena Knight, I returned to my research and photo files. There, I located this photograph of the Jeffrey and Ella Knight family, which is particularly revealing about […]
Serena Knight
by Vikki Bynum There are many participants in the Free State of Jones that I wish I knew more about. One of them is Serena Knight, the white wife of Newt Knight. Serena is often […]
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