The first comprehensive history of the vital role women
—
both black and white
played in the civil rights movement.
In this groundbreaking and absorbing book, credit finally goes where credit is due
to the bold women who were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement. From the Montgomery bus boycott to the lunch counter sit-ins to the Freedom Rides, Lynne Olson skillfully tells the long-overlooked story of the extraordinary women who were among the most fearless, resourceful, and tenacious leaders of the civil rights movement.
Freedom's Daughters
includes portraits of more than sixty women
many until now forgotten and some never before written about
from key figures like Ida B. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ella Baker, and Septima Clark to some of the smaller players who represent the hundreds of women who each came forth to do her own small part and who together ultimately formed the mass movements that made the difference.
puts a human face on the civil rights struggle
and shows that that face was often female.