Bittersweet Legacy is the dramatic story of the relationship
between two generations of black and white southerners in
Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1850 to 1910. Janette Greenwood
describes the interactions between black and white business and
professional people--the 'better classes,' as they called
themselves. Her book paints a surprisingly complex portrait of race
and class relations in the New South and demonstrates the impact of
personal relationships, generational shifts, and the interplay of
local, state, and national events in shaping the responses of black
and white southerners to each other and the world around them.
Greenwood argues that concepts of race and class changed
significantly in the late nineteenth century. Documenting the rise
of interracial social reform movements in the 1880s, she suggests
that the 'better classes' briefly created an alternative vision of
race relations. The disintegration of the alliance as a result of
New South politics and a generational shift in leadership left a
bittersweet legacy for Charlotte that would weigh heavily on its
citizens well into the twentieth century.