Hamer was born in 19 17, the youngest of 20 kids. Pulls back from education around 12 years old because she needs to work full time and help the family when she's a kid. She also gets polio and tis, this leaves her with a disability a. So she grows up,. especially in the early days, you know, in a family which is defined in no small part by struggle, by deep poverty... And yet, it also sounds like she has a really strong mam who instils in her the sense of black pride, of defending principles at any cost.
With the rigor of a world-class researcher and the intention of someone who cares deeply about the human condition and understanding how we all got to this moment in history, Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United States with specializations in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and the president of the African American Intellectual History Society.
She is also the author of the multi-prize-winning book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, and co-editor of the Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. Her #1 New York Times Best Seller Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited with Ibram X. Kendi, drew together an incredible collection of voices with a vision to reclaim the historical narrative. And her new book, Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America, is a powerful look not just at the role of civil and voting rights activist, Hamer and other Black women in social and political change, it’s also an invitation for us all to explore our individual roles in the path to equality and freedom, led by Hamer’s famed rallying cry, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
You can find Keisha at: Website | Instagram
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