From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir - Softcover

Mae Holland Ph.D., Endesha Ida

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556523416 ISBN 13: 9781556523410

Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books, 1999

Synopsis

After being raped by a white employer at the age of 11, Holland became a rebel, turning to prostitution and delinquency. But when she stumbled across the civil rights movement she found herself developing in to a leader-only to encounter the cruelest retribution at the hands of white bigots that she could ever have imagined.

About this title

Review

Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, the heart of the Mississippi Delta, Endesha Ida Mae Holland came of age as the civil rights movement was changing the lives of black Mississippians. Dirt poor, she dropped out of high school and became a prostitute when she was barely into her teens. By the time she was 18 years old, Holland had served two terms in the county workhouse for theft and for assault. A chance encounter led her to become involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and she became an activist and organizer, taking a new path that eventually led her to the University of Minnesota, where she earned a doctorate and became a college professor. From the Mississippi Delta is a gritty, inspiring memoir.

Review

No one with a sense of history and humanity--no one who has been as far down as Holland says she was, who has had helping hands as Holland has had, who had a Mama like hers--can read her book with dry eyes. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Kay Mills

Edition details

• Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556523416
• ISBN 13: 9781556523410
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 334