Reverend H. K. Matthews is one of the unsung heroes of the Southern civil rights movement. Among his activism, he participated in the first sit-in demonstrations in northwest Florida, and led a campaign against the use of Confederate symbols at an area high school, and much more. And he served time in state prison for a crime that never occurred. However, his memoir Victory After the Fall is much more than one man's account of his life experiences. It is a first-person narrative of the challenges and opportunities black citizens encountered before, during, and after the 1960s struggle for racial equality. Victory After the Fall provides a fascinating journey into the civil rights battlegrounds of northwest Florida and beyond, but it is also a story of moral courage and personal redemption.