Defiant, Wade Hudson
Defiant, Wade Hudson
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Defiant
Growing Up in the Jim Crow South

Author: Wade Hudson

Narrator: Wade Hudson

Unabridged: 7 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/12/2021


Synopsis

As the fight for equal rights continues, Defiant takes a critical look at the strides and struggles of the past in this revelatory and moving memoir about a young Black man growing up in the South during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. For fans of It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime, Stamped, and Brown Girl Dreaming.

"With his compelling memoir, Hudson will inspire young readers to
emulate his ideals and accomplishments.” –Booklist, Starred Review
 
Born in 1946 in Mansfield, Louisiana, Wade Hudson came of age against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. From their home on Mary Street, his close-knit family watched as the country grappled with desegregation, as the Klan targeted the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and as systemic racism struck across the nation and in their hometown.

Amidst it all, Wade was growing up. Getting into scuffles, playing baseball, immersing himself in his church community, and starting to write. Most important, Wade learned how to find his voice and use it. From his family, his community, and his college classmates, Wade learned the importance of fighting for change by confronting the laws and customs that marginalized and demeaned people.

This powerful memoir reveals the struggles, joys, love, and ongoing resilience that it took to grow up Black in segregated America, and the lessons that carry over to our fight for a better future.

About The Author

Wade Hudson is an author, a publisher, and the president and CEO of Just Us Books, Inc., an independent publisher of books for children and young adults. He has published over thirty books, including the anthologies We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, which received four starred reviews; The Talk, which earned four starred reviews and was a New York Times Best Book of the Year; and Recognize: Black Lives Matter. These powerful collections were co-edited with his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson.Defiant is Wade’s homage to the Black people he knew in Mansfield as much as it is his story about growing up there. These were the people who nurtured and loved him even as they fought for their own survival under Jim Crow. It is also the story of a youngster trying to find meaning and purpose in a defining era where issues such as civil rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and resistance against the Vietnam War played out regularly on the news. It is about finding one’s voice and joining the fight for justice and equality.Wade lives in East Orange, New Jersey, with his wife.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Edward

Hudson offers young readers a vivid, engaging, and insightful memoir about growing up a black boy in Jim Crow-era, rural Louisiana. He shares many colorful stories about his family, friends, the teachers who influenced and encouraged his creativity and intellectual curiosity, getting "saved" and bap......more

Goodreads review by Barbara

I admire the work that this author and his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson, have done with their publishing house, Just Us Books, and since I grew up during the same time period that Hudson himself did [well, just a little later], I was curious to learn more about what led to his involvement in the civil......more

Goodreads review by Amelia

Wade Hudson grew up in a shotgun house. Born to a loving family with plenty of children, he was surrounded by both structural inequity and love. Even young, he knew he was meant for something special. He walked his own path, sang his own songs. He learned what it meant to be faithful, to be creative......more

Goodreads review by Traci

Wade Hudson’s story starts when he is in college and his work for the civil rights movement draws the attention of white city officials. He and two friends are falsely accused of plotting to kill the mayor and other powerful white men in an effort to keep Jim Crow laws firmly in place. After he is a......more


Quotes

"Absorbing, conversational memoir." -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Powerful testimony from a children’s literature legend." -Kirkus Reviews

"This memoir offers a snapshot of a community enriched by love and chained by systemic racism." –School Library Journal.” –School Library Journal