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BOOKS I READ: Up Home: One Girl’s Journey by Ruth J. Simmons (2023). Ruth Simmons is the runt of a Texan sharecropper family of twelve. Her mother’s unwavering commitment to raise children to be respectful of others, upright, and hardworking were lessons ingrained in her. Eventually, her teachers take over, offering inspiration and motivation. As the youngest, she’s mostly protected from the vagaries of life in the segregated South, although she witnesses the alienation and degrading treatment of Blacks during her visits to town.
After moving to Houston, the young girl experiences mostly successes in her academic endeavors, eventually graduating from high school and earning scholarships and other awards. Her mother’s death is a major setback, but she pushes on to tremendous heights as an educator, eventually becoming the first Black president of an Ivy League school. In the book, Ms. Simmons gives major credit to teachers, family, and other mentors for her success, mostly downplaying her internal fortitude, intelligence, and moxie that allow her to succeed despite her meager starting point.
See Ruth Simmons’s PBS Newshour interview (9/19/2023).
Check out my Bookshop.org stand; and browse my reading log. The previous book from the log is below:
