"A lifelong native of the rural, all-black community of Harmony, Winson has lived through some of the most racially oppressive periods in her state's history - and has devoted her life to combating discrimination. With her sister Dovie, Winson filed the first lawsuit to desegregate the public schools in a rural county. Helping to establish the county NAACP chapter in 1961, Winson served as its president for 39 years.

Her work has included voting rights, school desegregation, health care, government loans, telephone service, good roads, housing and childcare - issues that were intertwined with the black freedom struggle. Winson's narrative, presented in her own words with historical background from award-winning author and activist Constance Curry, is both triumphant and tragic, inspiring and disturbing.

It illustrates the virtually untold story of the role that African American women played in the civil rights movement at the local level in black communities throughout the south."--BOOK JACKET.