Book Reviews

An impressive, well-written account of the black freedom struggle in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Françoise Hamlin's oral history interviews are terrific, her analysis is thorough, and the story she tells is dramatic.

John Dittmer, author of Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi and Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care

A sweeping, moving, and pathbreaking history of a half century of civil rights activism in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Françoise Hamlin gracefully runs an integrated gender, class, generational, and race analysis throughout the manuscript to permanently shift and transform our understanding of the black freedom struggle. Crossroads at Clarksdale jumps off the page.

Annelise Orleck, Dartmouth College, author of Storming Caesar's Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War On Poverty and co-editor of The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History

Truly valuable work. This book is as important a contribution to understanding Mississippi's freedom struggle and bringing attention to many aspects of the movement as any I know.

Charles E. Cobb, Jr., originator of the Freedom Schools as a SNCC field secretary, founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, author of On the Road to Freedom and co-author (with Bob Moses) of Radical Equations