Not Like a River : The Memoir of an Activist Academic

"Not Like A River: The Memoir of an Activist Academic is the oral history of Elmer Rusco, a distinguished professor of political science at the University of Nevada in Reno. This memoir is the summation of Professor Rusco's life in civil liberties and civil rights and his pursuit of legal and historical truth. It provides insight into the exceptional scope of Professor Rusco's work and contributions, as well as the reasons for his extraordinary, lifelong commitment to advancing the cause of social justice. Originally from Kansas, Professor Rusco chose to spend more than four decades in Nevada. He was one of the founding group of faculty members of the University of Nevada's Department of Political Science when it separated from the History Department between 1958 and 1963; and he helped establish the reputation of that faculty for teaching, public service, and mentoring. Professor Rusco was one of the volunteer leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada that sustained it from its founding in 1966 to 1985, and in the 1970s he served as its state president. Professor Rusco was active in community, state, and national organizations, including those committed to the environment (Friends of Rancho San Rafael and Friends of Pyramid Lake), religion (the Unitarian Universalists), civil rights (the ACLU Nevada and the Northern Nevada Black Cultural Awareness Society), political reform (Common Cause), legal aid (Washoe Legal Services), direct help for the poor (Community Services Agency and Habitat for Humanity), and much more. Professor Rusco's oral history also provides insight into how his religious, personal, and political philosophy was shaped. The sources were mostly rooted in rural Kansas but also involved a cattleboat excursion that spanned several continents and a Midwesterner's encounters with the Jim Crow South. For Elmer Rusco, ""retirement"" in 1986 added to his life the time to become the state's leading authority on Nevada's civil rights legacy and its struggle with racism. He was able to complete monumental studies on federal Indian policy and on Nevada's encounters with its Chinese residents, in addition to a myriad of published studies on poverty and the black experience in Nevada."Rusco, Elmer is the author of 'Not Like a River : The Memoir of an Activist Academic', published 2004 under ISBN 9781564753823 and ISBN 1564753824.