Jo Freeman Reviews: The Moment: Changemakers on Why and How They Joined the Fight for Social Justice

 

This book is about acting, not writing.

 

After publishing his last book in 2021, based on memories and interviews with civil rights icon C.T. Vivian, Fiffer wanted to do more like it.  He felt that many lesser-known people had stories that needed to be told.  His publisher concurred.

 

 It does help to start with an interested publisher.  At that time it was NewSouth books. By the time the book came out in November 2022, NewSouth had become an imprint of the University of Georgia Press.

 

Fiffer doesn’t tell us how he found his subjects, though many had made the newspapers for what they did.  Some are semi-public figures: Don Katz is the founder of Audible, Inc.  Chokwe Lumumba is Mayor of Jackson, MS. His wife,  Ebony, is an English professor. Renee Montgomery was a WNBA champion.

      

But not all.

 

Amirah Ahmed, 18, co-founded Fredericksburg Muslim Youth while a high school student in Virginia.  Ben Shore, who co-founded Rise Against Hate, is a student at American University in DC.  Brian Jon, founded the Asian-American Youth Council while a high school student in New Jersey. He’s now attending college in Pennsylvania.

 

These are mostly first-person stories, even though they are based on interviews which Fiffer edited into coherent narratives.  Read them like a series of short stories with a common theme.  

 

This book has an index (right on!) and  its own webpage:  https://www.themoment-thebook.com/  You can order the book there, or go directly to the U. GA press webpage: https://ugapress.org/book/9781588384751/the-moment/ 

 

 Editor’s Note:  Jo has finished her book on working in the civil rights movement and is looking for a publisher.