J. K. Bettersworth Explained

John Knox Bettersworth (1909-1991) was a history professor and author in Mississippi.^{[1] [2]}

James W. Loewen wrote critically of the bigotry and inaccuracy in Betterworth's high school textbooks that were standard in Mississippi schools for decades^[3] and Betterworth's work was contrasted with the textbook Loewen and Charles Sallis co-edited in 1974 in Sallis's obituary.^[4] Rebecca Miller Davis described Bettersworth's textbooks as stuck in a Lost Cause mentality.^[5]

Writings

• Confederate Mississippi: The People and Policies of a Cotton State in Wartime (1943)
• People’s College: A history of Mississippi State (1953)
• Mississippi: A History (1959)
• South of Appomatox
• Mississippi in the Confederacy (1961)
• Mississippi the Land and the People (1981)
• Your Mississippi (1975)
• People’s University: The centennial history of Mississippi State (1980)^[6]

Articles

• ”Mississippi Historiography” (1957)^[7]
• ”Humor in the Old Southwest: Yesterday and Today” Mississippi Historical Quarterly 1964^[8]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Biography and works of John K. Bettersworth, Mississippi historian. www.mswritersandmusicians.com. Mississippi Writers Project.
2. John Knox Bettersworth: A Tribute. Giles, William L.. 1991. The Mississippi Quarterly. 45. 1. 3–7. 26475215 . JSTOR.
3. Web site: How Two Historians Responded to Racism in Mississippi | History News Network. historynewsnetwork.org. Jim . Loewen. Dec 7, 2014.
4. News: Nossiter . Adam . 2024-02-16 . Charles Sallis, 89, Dies; Upended the Teaching of Mississippi History . 2024-02-17 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
5. Web site: The Three R’s—Reading, ’Riting, and Race: The Evolution of Race in Mississippi History Textbooks, 1900-1995. 2023-08-21. Rebecca. Miller Davis.
6. Book: Martin, Charles H.. Benching Jim Crow: The Rise and Fall of the Color Line in Southern College Sports, 1890-1980. June 25, 2010. University of Illinois Press. 9780252077500 . Google Books.
7. Web site: Bibliography of Mississippi History. opac2.mdah.state.ms.us.
8. Book: Humor of the Old Southwest. Hennig. Cohen. William B.. Dillingham. June 25, 1994. University of Georgia Press. 9780820316055 . Google Books.