About the Author

David T. Beito is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of History at the University of Alabama. He received his Ph.D. in history at the University of Wisconsin, and he is the recipient of the Ellis Hawley Prize. Professor Beito is the author of Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression and From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967.. An urban and social historian, Professor Beito has published in the Journal of Southern History, Journal of Policy History, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of Urban History, The Independent Review, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Journal of Firearms and Public Policy, and other scholarly journals. And, his popular articles have appeared in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Perspectives, History News Network, National Review, Reason, and elsewhere.

Linda Royster Beito is associate professor and chair of the Department of Social Sciences at Stillman College and the author of Leadership Effectiveness in Community Policing.

Reviews

"T.R.M. Howard was a towering freedom fighter. Too often forgotten! The powerful and insightful book, T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer, corrects the historical record and keeps his precious memory fresh for us!"
--Cornel R. West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, Harvard Divinity School; Class of 1943 University Professor Emeritus, Center for African American Studies, Princeton University "T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer fills a gap. Too often today we conflate the civil rights movement with the legend of Martin Luther King, Jr. In fact there were countless others who fought for racial justice within an indifferent--and often hostile--society. This is the richly detailed story of one such man. T.R.M. Howard, in both his heroism and his human contradictions, is a human face on America's greatest freedom movement. And, quite beyond its historical importance, this book is a gripping and moving read."
--Shelby Steele, Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; author, The Content of Our Character, A Dream Deferred, White Guilt, and Shame "In the 15 or so years of the civil-rights movement, no incident evoked more outrage than the torture and killing of Emmett Till, the spirited 14-year-old who left Chicago in August 1955 to visit relatives in Mississippi. One afternoon in a general store, Till committed the fatal sin of smarting off (jokingly) to a white woman. His cousins hustled him away, but two nights later a knock at the door sounded. Menacing white men loomed, and as Till's great-uncle pleaded they marched in and hauled him away. A few days later, Till's body surfaced in the Tallahatchie River, a cotton-gin fan-wheel wrapped around him with barbed wire. The murder brought national disgust upon Mississippi. Especially after thousands of mourners viewed Till's open casket and noted the barbarities wrought upon the boy. . . . One of them was T.R.M. Howard, physician, landowner, activist, orator, and the subject of T.R.M. Howard, a compelling biography by David T. Beito and his wife Linda Royster Beito. T.R.M. Howard is a necessary biography, too: Howard played an important part in the Emmett Till story, and in the entire civil-rights are. He deserves to be better known. . . . Three months after the Till murder, he lectured in a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., the guest of 26-year-old pastor Martin Luther King. He spoke of shootings, the FBI and a freedom march on Washington, D.C. One woman in the audience remembered years later Howard's vivid description of the Till killing. Her name was Rosa Parks, and four days after Howard spoke she answered a Montgomery bus driver, 'No.'" . . . He bought land, bred livestock, served on the board of a bank and advanced black enterprise on the premise that political power needed financial power. He led voter-registration drives, supported boycotts, and lobbied Washington for services and hospitals. . . . Famed civil-rights leader Medgar Evans was Howard's protégé, as was (later) Jesse Jackson. . . . Howard drove Cadillacs and Buicks, wore fancy clothes and loved guns and big-game hunting. He praised free enterprise with a Booker T. Washington fervor, believing entrepreneurs to be better agents of change than activists. . . . A flamboyant Second Amendment, anti-communist capitalist doesn't please journalists and historians searching for civil-rights martyrs. T.R.M. Howard, though, makes room for exactly such a figure, and rightly so. That Howard made an important contribution is unquestionable."
--Wall Street Journal "Dr. Howard was a history maker, and this book brings him to life as a man of courage whose actions and views on civil rights shaped American history."
--Juan A. Williams, Political Analyst, Fox News Channel; author, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 "If there was a Mount Rushmore of civil rights icons, it would include Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., and T.R.M. Howard. Howard was that important to the cause of civil rights. The powerful book, T.R.M. Howard, now brings to life this extraordinary figure in African-American history. Best known for his role in the civil rights movement, Howard was also a leading figure in African-American medicine, business, and social life. This is the story of Howard, but it is also the story of the black professionals and business people who contributed mightily to the cause of racial freedom. Readers will marvel at the life of Howard: a machine-gun toting advocate of protest and nonviolence who courted controversy within the movement and beyond. Based on the true story of Howard, the life and legend of the man could fill a Hollywood movie (or two). In the meantime, we have this magnificent biography to tell the story of larger-than-life figure, T.R.M. Howard."
--Jonathan J. Bean, Professor of History, Southern Illinois University "T.R.M. Howard's wonderfully told story about an important personality sadly unknown to most students of the Civil Rights Movement is a more than welcome corrective. Dr. Howard's life and accomplishments need to be better known!"
--Julian Bond, former Chairman, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People "T.R.M. Howard's contributions to the civil rights movement are too often neglected by all but the most specialized of scholars. David T. and Linda Royster Beito's magnificent biography, T.R.M. Howard, should finally bring Dr. Howard his due from Americans writ large. I applaud the Beitos for telling Dr. Howard's story with such power, honesty, and dignity."
--Scott Douglas Gerber, Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University; Associated Scholar, Brown University's Political Theory Project; author, First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas "David T. Beito, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, and Linda Royster Beito, the chair of the department of social sciences at Stillman College, are the authors of T.R.M. Howard. Fifty-four years ago today, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy visiting family in Mississippi, was abducted, mutilated and slain after he allegedly whistled at a white woman. Several days later, his horribly disfigured body was fished out of the Tallahatchie River. Many such tragedies had previously happened to black Americans and then been ignored. The Till case was different because of the efforts of a flamboyant and wealthy black planter and surgeon, T.R.M. Howard. Howard's place in history has been woefully slighted. Without him, we might never have heard of Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers or Operation PUSH. Howard was the crucial link connecting the Till slaying and the rise of the modern civil rights movement. But he was an unlikely civil rights hero. A prosperous businessman who spared no expense on his wardrobe, sped around in expensive Cadillacs, gambled on horses, ran a successful hospital that provided affordable healthcare, hunted big game in Africa and owned a 1,000-acre plantation, Howard promoted an agenda of entrepreneurship and self-help. . . . Why isn't this larger-than-life figure better known? Howard, a classically American "man on the make," is hard to pigeonhole. His secular orientation and pro-business ideas made him an anomaly in a civil rights movement dominated by church leaders and left-liberal activists. Politically, his activities offer something to please and offend everybody: A staunch Republican and ally of President Eisenhower, Howard was also a committed feminist whose clinics offered safe abortions in the years before Roe vs. Wade. But those who knew T.R.M. Howard (who died in 1976 at age 68) still speak about his energy, charisma and commitment. '"The man was dynamic, ' recalled Mamie Till-Mobley. 'I just thought he was the greatest in the world.'"
--Los Angeles Times "It is my privilege and pleasure to have known and worked with Dr. Howard as he was pursuing the cause of civil rights in Mississippi with the same vim and vigor as it was being pursued in New York, Chicago, and other places. I was also afraid of him. This illuminating biography is a must read for anyone seeking to know more about the civil rights struggle in Mississippi in foregone years. Every acre was a drop of blood and every step was a tear."
--Benjamin L. Hooks, former Executive Director, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People "T.R.M. Howard's life was many things and its complexities and seeming paradoxes makes it especially important to get his story right. The great and admirable biography, T.R.M. Howard, displays the early Civil Rights era in all its messiness and grandeur. Howard was equal parts a business entrepreneur, a proponent of black self-help through fraternal societies, and a fearless national leader against racial injustice. To overlook Howard is to miss some important truths about the Civil Rights movement: its success was never guaranteed, it was a pick-up affair that relied on ingenuity and shrewd use of opportunities, and it depended at every turn on exceptional individuals like T.R.M. Howard."
--Terence J. Pell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Individual Rights; former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education "The definitive work on the life of T.R.M. Howard. A fascinating narrative that illuminates important aspects of the African American experience in the twentieth century."
--Adam Fairclough, Professor Emeritus of American History, Leiden University Institute for History; author, Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890-2000 "T.R.M. Howard is an engrossing, highly-informative book about one of the most astonishing figures in American history. It's the story of a unique individual who is not just pivotal to the civil rights movement, but without whom many of the best known leaders of the movement may never have emerged. David and Linda Beito have authored a must-read for anyone interested in American history, civil rights, and colorful, larger-than-life characters. T.R.M. Howard is a meticulously researched, epic biography of one of the most fascinating personalities and consequential periods in American history. It's an important contribution to America's understanding of civil rights and the black experience in the United States."
--Peter N. Kirsanow, Member, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; former Member, National Labor Relations Board; former Chair, The Center for New Black Leadership "One of the best biographies I have read in years. It works both as a revisionist project, challenging our understanding of the nature of black leadership in the South, and as a reclamation project, bringing back into the discussion a colorful and important transitional figure who has received little notice from scholars."
--Charles M. Payne, Jr., Frank P. Hixon Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago; author, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement "The biography, T.R.M. Howard, is an impressive account of the life and contributions of a neglected hero of the black civil-rights movement. As a doctor, entrepreneur, and activist, Howard risked his life for the betterment of others. I highly recommend this excellent book for anyone interested in learning about forgotten and neglected historical figures."
--Carol M. Swain, retired Professor of Political Science and Law, Vanderbilt University; Member, James Madison Society, Princeton University; author, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress, The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration, and other books "T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer resurrects this important historical figure from undeserved obscurity. It also provides a window to observe the complexity of the southern civil rights movement."
--Robert E. Weems, Jr., Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History, Wichita State University "Howard 'consistently pushed an agenda of self-help, black business, and political equality whenever opportunities arose, ' write David T. Beito, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, and his wife Linda Royster Beito, a professor of social sciences at Stillman College, in their captivating and vividly detailed new biography, T.R.M. Howard. . . . Unlike other prominent civil rights leaders, though, Howard had little patience for the utopian schemes of the far left, declaring at one point that he wished 'one bomb could be fashioned that would blow every Communist in America right back to Russia where they belong.' In a similar vein, he maintained, 'There is not a thing wrong with Mississippi today that real Jeffersonian democracy and the religion of Jesus Christ cannot solve.' . . . No single individual brought down the South's Jim Crow regime, but there were a few dozen who played essential parts. T.R.M. Howard convincingly elevates Howard to that rank. It also provocatively links Howard's success to the controversial ideas of the 19th-century African-American leader Booker T. Washington, who had famously prioritized black economic independence over political liberty. . . . Indeed, one of the book's most significant achievements is to highlight the indispensable role that black entrepreneurs and professionals played in the crucial early phase of the modern civil rights struggle. . . . For Howard, this focus on economic independence remained constant throughout his career. . . . Today, given the overwhelming attention that most historians have paid to King's dazzling legacy, it's easy to forget that fraternal societies and profit-minded entrepreneurs also led the fight for equal rights. With T.R.M. Howard, T.R.M. Howard's achievements have finally received the attention they deserve."
--Reason "T.R.M. Howard was not everyone's idea of a civil rights hero, and his accomplishments have been widely neglected. But as historians David Beito and Linda Royster Beito demonstrate in their book T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer, he was in fact one of the most effective black civil rights leaders of his generation and a key figure in bringing civil rights to Mississippi and empowering black voters in Chicago."
--Harper's "'While historians have properly acknowledged the contributions of clergymen and grassroots activists' to the civil-rights movement, write David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, 'they have too often neglected those made by entrepreneurs and black professionals.' The Beitos' new book--T.R.M. Howard--begins to set the record straight."
--National Review "T.R.M. Howard is the only biography of Dr. Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard, whose remarkable life (1908-1976) combined entrepreneurship, medical practice, civil-rights activism against segregation, philanthropy, and high living. He was an irrepressible but flawed character, a man on the make who grew up under Jim Crow and took advantage of the few opportunities that system of repression left open. He then used his wealth and persuasive abilities to combat the system. Howard proved that freedom and capitalism were powerful weapons that could be used against bigotry. . . . The Beitos have written a timely and enlightening book. Howard was a fascinating man, and his belief that free enterprise offers poor people (of all races) the path to success needs to be trumpeted as loudly as ever. America today is torn by counterproductive governmental "affirmative action" policies such as quotas for "minority-owned" contractors and racial preferences in college admissions. The book's subtext is that what government needs to do to help poor people and minorities is to get out of their way."
--The Freeman "Fame is fleeting, and those who during their lifetime attain the debatable benefits of public acclaim will often, upon their death, have their memory entombed with them. Such is the case with T.R.M. Howard, who for a time was one of America's most widely known, colorful, and respected civil rights pioneers. The husband and wife team of David and Linda Beito have labored nearly a decade to write a biography, T.R.M. Howard, in hopes that they can raise the man's memory from the grave. The book was worth the wait. Well-written and deeply researched, the authors immerse the reader into Dr. Howard's world, one that crossed paths with a litany of American greats such as MLK, Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and Jesse Owens. Four days after seeing Dr. Howard give an impassioned speech at MLK's Baptist Church, Rosa Parks took her famous stand against Jim Crow. She insisted that it was the thought of Emmett Till, who's lynching was the subject of Dr. Howard's speech, which spurred her to refuse to give up her bus seat. . . . Throughout the book, Mr. and Mrs. Beito do a sparkling job bringing to life Dr. Howard, his energy, his flamboyance and his personal bravery in battling to establish the rule of law in the South. But that is not all that recommends this work. . . . I have rarely put a book down so I could rise out of my seat and give it a standing ovation, but after that passage I couldn't help myself. . . . By bringing the man so clearly into focus, warts and all, this finely written, incredibly important biography will do more to push Dr. Howard further into the background than to earn him the recognition he so richly deserves. Dr. Howard will remain largely forgotten, despite, and ironically because of, this spirited and engaging biography."
--Daily Kos