On the Freedom Side

“Essential reading for scholars and practitioners of social movements, youth activism, and community engagement.”—Journal of African American History

“A must-read for academics and activists interested in the linkages between youth movements across generations, regions, racial and ethnic groups, sexual orientations, and citizenship status.”—Journal of Southern History

“Hogan’s history is strikingly contemporary. . . . Drawing on and expanding the legacy of Ella Baker’s role in African American and youth activism, On the Freedom Side examines relationships between generations of youth activism and intersectional politics.”—Cercles

“Some of the activists Hogan presents are familiar, e.g., Ella Baker; many others are less so, including Pat Hussain, Hermelinda Cortes, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, and a host of others, all of whom were (and are) devoted to ridding the nation (and the world) of ills ranging from systemic racism to environmental degradation and failures to protect minority rights. . . . Charting powerful activist legacies, the author leaves readers with hope for the future.”—CHOICE

“At a time when too many of us are simply cursing the darkness, Hogan has shone the light of history on the often-invisible youth movements that fueled positive change in the past . . . and that continue to energize us today.” — Judy Richardson, SNCC veteran and coeditor of Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC

“Hogan provides a way for us to explore the evolution of social justice movements, revealing how activists take what they learn from the 'Movement Decade' of the 1960s and build upon it.” — Tracy E. K’Meyer, author of From Brown to Meredith: The Long Struggle for School Desegregation in Louisville, Kentucky, 1954–2007

“An informed, passionate, and hopeful book that considers the cutting-edge movements of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Hogan introduces us to the multiracial, intergenerational, and intersectional activists at the heart of contemporary freedom movements, noting their own acknowledged debts to the egalitarian spirit of the Black Freedom struggle and its most egalitarian practitioner, Ella Baker.” — Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era