I have been working on a book that is set in the Southern United States in the 1960's and have been slowly learning how to go about finding useful pieces of history to get an accurate account of that time period on a macroscale of the united states and micro of what an individual's life would consist of. I have a few quesitons though:
Any other insights are appreciated!
One way to start and proceed would be to read the relevant chapters of a very general textbook (such as Tindall and Shi's "America: A Narrative History") and a somewhat more specific standard work on the place/time you're interested in (such as Bartley's "The New South, 1945-1980") written by leading historians in that field. Then follow the annotated bibliography or "suggested further reading" lists, and the sources those books cite in their footnotes, to get more detail on the specific things you're interested in.
The multi-volume "Encyclopedia of Southern Culture" published by the Univ. of N.C. Press contains many comprehensive articles on every aspect of life in the South during many different periods of history: politics, race relations, food, music, agriculture, commerce, intellectual history, etc. Each article, moreover, also contains a bibliography of works you can go to for more detail.
For your specific purposes, "Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation before the Civil Rights Movement in the South" by Egerton may also be indirectly useful. It covers the history of African Americans in the South from the 1930s to 1950s -- not exactly the time period you're looking for, but potentially useful background information. And "The Free Men" by Ehle focuses on the civil rights movement in one Southern town.
You might want to check out this thread.