{"product_id":"spell-freedom-the-underground-schools-that-built-the-civil-rights-movement-hardcover","title":"Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eElaine Weiss\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe acclaimed author of the \"stirring, definitive, and engrossing\" (NPR) \u003ci\u003eThe Woman's Hour\u003c\/i\u003e returns with the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore voting rights to Black Americans laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the summer of 1954, educator Septima Clark and small businessman Esau Jenkins travelled to rural Tennessee's Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white southerner with roots in the labor movement. There, the trio united behind a shared mission: preparing Black southerners to pass the daunting Jim Crow era voter registration literacy tests that were designed to disenfranchise them. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Together with beautician-turned-teacher Bernice Robinson, they launched the underground Citizenship Schools project, which began with a single makeshift classroom hidden in the back of a rural grocery store. By the time the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, the secretive undertaking had established more than nine hundred citizenship schools across the South, preparing tens of thousands of Black citizens to read and write, demand their rights--and vote. Simultaneously, it nurtured a generation of activists--many of them women--trained in community organizing, political citizenship, and tactics of resistance and struggle who became the grassroots foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King called Septima Clark, \"Mother of the Movement.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the vein of \u003ci\u003eHidden Figures\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDevil in the Grove\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSpell Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e is both\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ea riveting, crucially important lens onto our past, and a deeply moving story for our present.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eElaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist, author, and public speaker. In addition to \u003ci\u003eSpell Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e, she is the author of \u003ci\u003eFruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of the Great War\u003c\/i\u003e; and\u003ci\u003e The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote.\u003c\/i\u003e Elaine lives with her husband in Baltimore, Maryland. Find out more at ElaineWeiss.com.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 384\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.4 x 9.1 x 5.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 04, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52635761443123,"sku":"9781668002698","price":36.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/ePsHlRdE8U9781668002698.webp?v=1762264443","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/spell-freedom-the-underground-schools-that-built-the-civil-rights-movement-hardcover","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}