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“THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN GIVE OUR CHILDREN IS AN EDUCATION.” —Mae Bertha Carter
In 1965, the Carters, an African American sharecropping family with thirteen children, took public officials at their word when they were offered “Freedom of Choice” to send their children to any school they wished, and so began their unforeseen struggle to desegregate the schools of Sunflower County, Mississippi. In this true account from the front lines of the civil rights movement, four generations of the Carter family speak to author and civil rights activist Constance Curry, who lived this story alongside the family—a story of clear-eyed determination, extraordinary grit, and sweet triumph.
“Dignity . . . is a quality displayed in abundance by the heroes of this tale . . . Mae Bertha cut a path for her children. Now it is their turn, and their children's turn.” —The New York Times
“Alternately inspiring and mortifying, frightening and enraging . . . Silver Rights is a sure-to-be-classic account of 1960s desegregation.” —Los Angeles Times
“A ‘case study’ of moral leadership . . . [An] instructive, even revelatory book.” —Robert Coles, author of Children of Crisis
“The book has an immediacy, intimacy and emotional truth that history rarely reveals. It also unfolds with a simplicity of words and facts that make the Carters' courage, faith and love a reality any reader can share.” —Smithsonian
“A solid contribution to the literature of recent American political history.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Silver Rights is pure gold . . . Connie Curry shines a light on the civil rights movement’s unknown makers . . . A must-read.” —Julian Bond
A LITERARY GUILD SELECTION
About the Author
Marian Wright Edelman is the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, as well as numerous others that she has authored and edited. She is the winner of many awards for her work including a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, a Heinz Award, and a Neibuhr Award. In 2000, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings. Edelman is a graduate of Spelman college and Yale Law School.