Summary
"In 1933, Unita Blackwell was born in Lula, Mississippi, a tiny town in the Delta where living was as hard as it gets, the stuff of the blues music that originated there. Like the other black people in Lula, Unita grew up in a sharecropping family, riding on her mother's cotton sack before she was old enough to pick cotton herself. Having left school at age twelve in order to make a living, Unita was trapped in menial jobs, and a bright future seemed beyond her reach." "But Unita was forever changed in the summer of 1964 when civil rights workers came to her town of Mayersville, Mississippi. Electrified by the movement, Unita transformed her life from one of despair to one of hope, and in Barefootin' she details her inspirational rise from poverty to power, from silence to outspokenness, from oppression to freedom." "From her rebirth as a freedom fighter and social activist to her tenure as mayor of her home town, to her work as an international peacemaker and presidential advisor, here are all the unlikely turns of Unita's remarkable life. The lessons she shares affirm and motivate us all, whether it's to remember that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, that world-changing movements are the result of many small steps, or that freedom means taking responsibility for our own lives and helping to make the world a better place for all."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Publishers Weekly Review
Blackwell's engrossing autobiography makes for both a frontline account of the Civil Rights Movement by "a homegrown agitator" and a manual for political action. Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1933, Blackwell became a founding mother of the movement; her affiliations include the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the National Council of Negro Women, with whom she organized voter registration drives, school desegregation efforts, housing programs and economic boycotts. Blackwell was also elected the first black female mayor in Mississippi. Neither softening nor overdramatizing her story, she writes of the daily familial and communal African-American experiences that made her "just the kind of person" the civil rights workers"were looking for" when they arrived in Mayersville, Miss., in 1964. Overnight, Blackwell "went from cotton picker to full-time freedom fighter." Her experiences may seem familiar, but the intimacy and immediacy of her telling brings freshness to this slice of history. Blackwell's autobiography reaches back before that pivotal Freedom Summer and beyond her role in a 1973 women's delegation to China and her MacArthur genius grant, for example. Distinguished by her vision and courage, Blackwell's autobiography is a moving spiritual guide as well as a valuable historical document. (June 13) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc.
Copyright Reed Business Information
Author Biography
Unita Blackwell is a fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Table of Contents
|
Preface |
ix |
|
Part I Startin' Off (1933-1964) |
1 |
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1 You Have the Power Within |
3 |
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2 You Can Make It |
9 |
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3 Let Nature Guide You |
26 |
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Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
