An urgent story for our times,
Walk With Me hurls readers headlong into the violent and repressive context of rural Mississippi before voting was a protected right for all Americans, even as it paints a moving picture of indelible courage and breathtaking transformation. Historian Kate Larson does
not withhold the excruciating details of Civil Rights era activism and backlash in this book; rather, she carefully pairs these violent accounts with the uplifting moments of song, food, faith, and resilience that characterized Fannie Lou Hamer's family and community life. Larson demonstrates once
again that she is an adept biographer with an eye for the contexts and character traits that shaped ordinary people into extraordinary agents of change. – Tiya Miles, author of
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family KeepsakeKate Larson has captured the fullness and simple grandeur of the life of Fannie Lou Hamer. For the first time, Larson has shared with us the context of Hamer's struggles and triumphs as a daughter of the Mississippi Delta. This work is an intimate portrait of a life that represents the best that
America has to offer. – Dr. Leslie-Burl McLemore, Professor Emeritus, Jackson State University, Founding Director, Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy
Kate Clifford Larson's page-turning biography of Fannie Lou Hamer takes readers on the journey of a woman born into the grinding poverty and racism of the Mississippi Delta who rose to become the voice of the unheard and the conscience of a nation. Based on prodigious research and extensive
interviews with those who knew Hamer,
Walk with Me is a masterpiece of historical scholarship, a layered portrait of an unlikely hero of the civil rights movement who gave her life for freedom. – Dr. Joyce Ladner, Mississippi Civil Rights veteran and former interim president of Howard
University
For every situation, for every generation, for all trying times, God sends forth a leader cloaked in spirit, motivated by faith, and often with the voice of an Angel. This book envelops the reader in Fannie Lou Hamer and the events that shaped her life during the revolutionary times of the 1960's
Civil Rights movement. It will be of great interest to anyone fighting racial, sex and cultural bias. – Frank Smith, Jr., Mississippi Civil Rights veteran, Executive Director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Freedom Foundation and Museum, Washington, D.C.
Biographer Larson (Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter) delivers a moving and in-depth portrait of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. –Publishers Weekly
'A social justice pioneer gets her due in this inspiring story of toil and spirit. A must-stock for libraries. –Starred review, Kirkus
An inspiring read for activists fighting for voting rights and against racism. –Starred review, Library Journal
Accessible and moving, Larson's account offers history's best gifts-context and complexity-to readers who want a better grasp of the trajectory of voting rights in our nation's past. –Christianity Today
'Walk With Me' is a gripping and skillfully researched political biography that embeds Hamer's personal history within a compelling account of the post-World War II civil rights movement.–The New York Times
Scholar Kate Clifford Larson, author of 'Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, ' has penned the definitive biography of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. -Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10 must-read Southern books this fall
This biography of Fannie Lou Hamer, the civil-rights advocate who challenged Mississippi segregationists with her powerful oratory and 'unforgettable' singing, places grassroots organizing by women at the heart of the battle for Black enfranchisement. –The New Yorker
Larson insists on bringing to life a bygone era that shaped a fierce, resilient and courageous woman who fought racism and sexism at every turn. –Janell Hobson, Ms. Magazine
