Description: Award-winning Civil Rights advocate Mary Frances Berry sheds new light on the fight for reparations. Callie House, an ex-slave who led the fight, founded the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association in 1899. Defying conventions of race, class, and gender, Callie led the organization in an attempt to petition the government for the pension promised them as freedmen. "Callie House and her historic role deserve to be brought out of the shadows, and Berry achieves that superbly."-Publishers Weekly
Brief description:
Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of ten books, including Power in Words, And Justice for All, and My Face Is Black Is True. She was a member of the US Commission on Civil Rights for more than 20 years and has received 35 honorary doctoral degrees and many awards, including the NAACP's Roy Wilkins Award and the Rosa parks Awards of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Review Quotes:
"An essential chapter in American history from a distinguished historian. Mary Frances Berry captures the logic of reparations for slavery, especially when the people who had actually been enslaved advanced it."
-- "Nell Painter, author of Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol"