Description
The first edition of Green Power: The Successful Way of A.G. Gaston, signed by the author.
Octavo, [12], 175pp, [6]. Green cloth, title stamped in gilt on the spine, illustration on front cover. No additional printings noted. Complete with eight illustrated plates. Light foxing along top of edge of text block, offsetting to endpapers. Text block solid. In the publisher’s dust jacket, $4.95 on the front flap, faint foxing to verso, bright illustrations, a near fine example. (Blockson 2945)
Signed on the dedication page: “Best wishes to Mr. Wallace C. Journey / A.G. Gaston 9-20-70.”
A. G. Gaston (1892-1996) was a pioneering Black entrepreneur and civic leader from Birmingham, Alabama who started services for the Black community they were routinely denied fair access to elsewhere, including an insurance company, funeral home, and bank, before expanding into real estate and hospitality. During the Civil Rights Movement, his “A. G. Gaston Motel” became a key meeting place and operational hub for visiting organizers (including Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference). Often described as a pragmatic power broker, Gaston favored negotiation and economic leverage to achieve the goals of the civil rights movement, but was known to support the effort financially.
