Alabama was the epicenter of the struggle. No state, not even Mississippi, was a bigger challenge for those working to obtain for themselves and others the basic rights and liberties due all Americans under our Constitution.... Nowhere will you find better explained the dangers facing black people who wanted change and the fear that gripped whites for whom change was unthinkable.... No single volume captures people and events better than this. - Harvey H. Jackson, Anniston Star ""Cradle of Freedom is the story of black men and women whose courage, love, and forgiveness demonstrate that changing people's hearts is just as important as changing laws, if not more important.... It dramatically presents well-known events in fresh fashion... [and] captures the heart of the civil rights message in blacks' refusal to descend to their white attackers' depth of hatred."" - Mobile Register ""A feel for the right details and deft, interpretive writing bring to history what DNA testing brings to innocence and guilt.... [Gaillard] cuts through the veneer of familiarity and takes us into the spit, sweat, and marrow of 40-year-old events."" - Charlotte Observer ""A welcome reminder that good history and good storytelling can go together."" - Dan T. Carter, author of The Politics of Rage and Scottsboro