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Thunder of Freedom:
Black Leadership and the Transformation of 1960s Mississippi
Sue [Lorenzi] Sojourner with Cheryl Reitan
Foreword by John Dittmer
Publication forthcoming by University Press of Kentucky in fall 2012. Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century series
“Sue Sojourner’s account of her mid-1960s work in Holmes County, Mississippi, is an important, engaging manuscript and one that speaks to a number of significant themes and topics in the scholarship of the civil rights movement.”
—Emilye Crosby, Civil Rights History from the Ground Up: Local Struggles, a National Movement.
The world’s eyes were on Mississippi during the summer of 1964 when civil rights activists launched an ambitious African American voter registration project and were met with violent resistance from white supremacists. Sue Sojourner and her husband arrived in Holmes County, Mississippi in the wake of this historic time, known as “Freedom Summer.”
From September, 1964 until her departure from the state in 1969, Sojourner collected an incredible number of documents, oral histories, and photographs chronicling the dramatic events that she witnessed. In this remarkable book, written in collaboration with Cheryl Reitan, Sojourner presents a fascinating portrait of the civil rights movement in one of the most active and broad-based community organizing operations in the South.
Thunder of Freedom unites Sojourner’s personal experiences with her insights regarding the dynamics of race relations in the 1960s South, providing readers with a unique look at the struggle for rights and equality in Mississippi. Illustrated with selections from Sojourner’s acclaimed catalog of photographs, this profound book tells the powerful, often intimate stories of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things.
Sue [Lorenzi] Sojourner is a veteran of the civil rights movement who worked with the citizens of Holmes County, Mississippi from fall 1964 through summer 1969 to achieve racial equality. She has produced two photography exhibitions using reproductions of her original 1960s photographs. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota.
Cheryl Reitan is a university administrator and the editor of the alumni magazine for the University of Minnesota Duluth. She has published short stories and articles in numerous literary and professional journals. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota.
Photograph above: Ozell Mitchell, (c) Sue [Lorenzi] Sojourner.
susojourner.com | 315 N. Lake Avenue, | Duluth Minnesota 55806 | 218-726-0341 | susojo@yahoo.com