The Agitator's Daughter: A Memoir of Four Generations of One Extraordinary African-American Family - Hardcover

Cashin, Sheryll

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1586484222 ISBN 13: 9781586484224

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2008

Synopsis

During Reconstruction, Herschel V. Cashin was a radical republican legislator who championed black political enfranchisement throughout the South. His grandson, Dr. John L. Cashin, Jr., inherited that passion for social justice and formed an independent Democratic party to counter George Wallace's Dixiecrats, electing more blacks to office than in any Southern state. His "uppity" ways attracted many enemies. Twice the private plane Cashin owned and piloted was sabotaged. His dental office and boyhood home were taken by eminent domain. The IRS pursued him, as did the FBI. Ultimately his passions would lead to ruin and leave his daughter, Sheryll, wondering why he would risk so much.

In following generations of Cashins through the eras of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, civil rights, and post-civil rights political struggles, Sheryll Cashin conveys how she came to embrace being an agitator's daughter with humor, honesty, and love.

About this title

About the Author:

Sheryll Cashin, professor of law at Georgetown University, writes about race relations and inequality in America. Her book The Failures of Integration was an Editors' Choice in the New York Times Book Review, and was a finalist for the 2005 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for non-fiction.

Review:

"Washington Post," July, 23, 2008 "In the smoothly written "The Agitator's Daughter," Sheryll Cashin, a law professor at Georgetown University, adds her firsthand experiences as a participant and witness to civil rights history to enliven the text with a close and often heartbreaking point of view." "Denise Nichols," Washington Post, July 23, 2008 "Books of family lore -- part oral history, part anecdote with loads of juicy tidbits from diaries and journals, engaging old photographs, newspaper quotes and entries from the public record -- serve to put meat on the bones of history. In the smoothly written "The Agitator's Daughter," Sheryll Cashin...adds her firsthand experiences as a participant and witness to civil rights history to enliven the text with a close and often heartbreaking point of view." Margo Hammond, "Cleveland Plain Dealer," August 10, 2008 "A clear-eyed assessment of living in a family of civil rights leaders that stretched back four generations. [Cashin] recounts her father's fierce love for her and her own love but exasperation with him, the toll that crusading can take, and, most importantly, the powerful pull an oral history...can have on the destinies of its members." "Washingtonian," August issue "deeply personal." "Washington Post," July, 23, 2008 "In the smoothly written "The Agitator's Daughter," Sheryll Cashin, a law professor at Georgetown University, adds her firsthand experiences as a participant and witness to civil rights history to enliven the text with a close and often heartbreaking point of view." "Flavour Magazine," Summer 2008 "Cashin's clear-eyed assessment of what it's like to live in a family of civil rights activists that goes back four generations: her father's fierce love for her and her own love but exasperation with him, the toll that fighting for a cause can take on people and their families, and, most importantly, the powerful pull a family's oral history - its "lore," as Cashin puts it - can have on the destinies of its members."

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1586484222
• ISBN 13: 9781586484224
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288