THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF THE VITAL ROLE
WOMEN -- BOTH BLACK AND WHITE -- PLAYED
IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
In this groundbreaking and absorbing book, credit finally goes where credit is due -- to the bold women who were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement. From the Montgomery bus boycott to the lunch counter sit-ins to the Freedom Rides, Lynne Olson skillfully tells the long-overlooked story of the extraordinary women who were among the most fearless, resourceful, and tenacious leaders of the civil rights movement.
Freedom's Daughters includes portraits of more than sixty women -- many until now forgotten and some never before written about -- from the key figures (Ida B. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ella Baker, and Septima Clark, among others) to some of the smaller players who represent the hundreds of women who each came forth to do her own small part and who together ultimately formed the mass movements that made the difference. Freedom's Daughters puts a human face on the civil rights struggle -- and shows that that face was often female.

The first and only comprehensive history of the enormous contributions of women--black and white, famous and unknown--to the fight for civil rights in this country. "Freedom's Daughters" spans four generations and introduces more than 60 women, some well-known, others never written about before.

Catherine Clinton The Washington Post Book World With rigor and grace, [Olson] brings these female freedom fighters to the forefront of America's most powerful social movement...Freedom's Daughters is about the struggles of twentieth-century activist women who empowered themselves through campaigns for social justice so that the next generation could inherit, if not a better world, then the strength and example to engage in worthy struggles of its own.