While the specific focus of this work is African American politics in the 'margins' of the South, this timely work examines minority and ethnic politics in rural America and other democratic societies. More importantly, this study explores the politics of everyone with a racial and ethnically diverse rural root_and how the majority versus minority political competition is played out in society. Unlike most books on national, state, and local governments, African American Politics in Rural America is concerned with theory and political actors_particularly their perceptions, frustrations, and, sometimes, satisfaction with the complex processes of governance at the grassroots level in American politics.