The Education of Mr. Mayfield
An Unusual Story of Social Change at Ole Miss
by David Magee
ISBN: 9780895873668
$19.95 Hardcover
John F. Blair Publishers

During the segregated early 1950s at the University of Mississippi, M.B. Mayfield, an African-American artist, received instruction from an unlikely source. Stuart Purser, the school’s first Art Department chairman, discovered Mayfield’s art and began secretly teaching him at the college. In this stirring tribute, David Magee details the racially charged atmosphere of the South and shows how two people transcended that divide through art.

"In telling this story, Magee reminds all of us that in the darkest times there are men and women willing to step through the door and into the light . . . a wonderful tale of the triumph of goodness."--Robert Hicks, author of The Widow of the South