SISTERS IN THE STRUGGLE –NYU PRESS BOOK FOCUSES ON AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS-BLACK POWER MOVEMENT

“A major revision of history, revealing that black women were the critical thinkers, strategists, fighters, and dreamers of the movement.” -- Robin D.G. Kelley

(To request a review copy of this book, contact Barbara Jester by phone, fax or e-mail.)

Bringing to life the too often ignored accomplishments of African American women who fought for civil rights and led the Black Power Movement, Sisters in the Struggle (400 pages; 11 b/w photographs/$55, cloth; $19.50 paper) was published recently by the New York University Press. The book was edited by Bettye Collier-Thomas, professor of history and director of the Center for African American History and Culture at Temple University, and by V.P. Franklin, professor of history and education at Columbia University and Keller Professor of Arts and Humanities at Xavier University of Louisiana. Although women were at the forefront of the civil rights struggle, their individual stories are rarely heard. In Sisters in the Struggle we hear about some of the unsung heroes: Ella Baker, who helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper who took on segregation in the Democratic Party, and won; and Septima Clark, who created a network of “Citizenship Schools” to teach poor black men and women to read and write and help them register to vote. Included are first-person testimonials from Rosa Parks and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, as well as original essays on black women’s activism in the Black Panther Party, where they fought the police and the entrenched male leadership. We also learn of black women’s activism in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and in the Free Joan Little Movement in the 1970s. Presented is a detailed analysis of the multifaceted roles played by African American women in civil rights and Black Power organizations as well as the major political parties at the local, state and national levels. The book also documents the formation of a distinct black feminist consciousness. Bettye Collier-Thomas is the author of Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons. V.P. Franklin is the author of several books including Black Self-Determination: A Cultural History of African American Resistance, The Education of Black Philadelphia, and Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Biography.

10/04/01