Faced with Welty's preference for the oblique in literary performances, some have assumed that Welty was not concerned with issues of race. This collection counters those assumptions as it examines Welty's handling of race, the color line, and Jim Crow segregation and sheds new light on her views.

Faced with Eudora Welty's preference for the oblique in literary performances, some have assumed that Welty was not concerned with issues of race, or was ambivalent toward racism. This collection counters those assumptions as it examines Welty's handling of race, the colour line, and Jim Crow segregation and sheds new light on her views about the insensitivities, blindness, and atrocities of whiteness.