On the Other Side of Freedom: Race and Justice in a Divided America

(Paperback)

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Five years ago, DeRay Mckesson quit his job as a school teacher, moved to Ferguson, Missouri, and spent the next 400 days on the streets as an activist, helping to bring the Black Lives Matter movement into being. Even when the police made it illegal to stand still, they refused to back down. Now, in his first book, Mckesson lays down the intellectual, pragmatic, and political framework for a new liberation movement. Honest, courageous, and imaginative, On the Other Side of Freedom is a work brimming with hope. Drawing on his own experiences - of growing up without his mother, with a father in recovery, of having a house burn down and a bully chase him home from school, of pacifying a traffic cop at gunpoint, of determined activism on the streets and in the White House - Mckesson asks us to imagine the best of what is possible. Honouring the voices of a new generation of activists, On the Other Side of Freedom is a visionary's call to take responsibility for imagining, and then building, the world we want to live in.

Reviews

Hope and insight and empathy spring from every page ofOn the Other Side of Freedom. DeRay Mckessonstares down the faces of bigotry and unfreedom and cynicism and doesnt flinch in writing out our marching orders toward freedom.

-- Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

He forces anyone who reads his words to understand the humanity of the black body; the black body that has otherwise been demonised, made monster-like, or contorted into some negative narrative. A vital read, if you are to truly know resistance, and the stories it gives rise to.

-- Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie

On the Other Side of Freedomreveals the mind and motivations of a young man who has risen to the fore of millennial activism through study, discipline, and conviction. His belief in a world that can be made better, one act at a time, powers his narratives and opens up a view on the costs, consequences, and rewards of leading a movement.

-- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Mckesson and a core group of other activists have built the most formidable American protest movement of the 21st century to date.

* New York Times *

An inspiring reminder that hope is vital to any political change, and its the driving force for any successful attempt at social justice.

* Esquire (Best Nonfiction Books of 2018) *

Riveting and affecting . . .written withastounding poetry, vulnerability, and flair. Mckesson is a gifted, pointed storyteller.

* The Village Voice *

Author Bio

DeRay Mckesson is a civil rights activist. Born and raised in Baltimore, he graduated from Bowdoin College and holds honorary doctorates from The New School and the Maryland Institute College of Art. A leading voice in the Black Lives Matter Movement and a co-founder of Campaign Zero, DeRay has been praised by Barack Obama for his work as a community organizer, and has advised officials at all levels of US government and internationally. He has been named among the World's Greatest Leaders in Fortune magazine, one of the 30 Most Important People On The Internet by Time and listed as one of Foreign Policy magazine's 100 Global Thinkers.