Unveiling the Untold Stories: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s Backtalker Challenges America’s Narrative
Born in 1959, her life spans the death of Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Act, the desegregation of public schools, Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation, the Obama years, and into the present day, where her research carries renewed urgency as we face one of the greatest threats to a multiracial democracy since her childhood.
Written with clarity and precision built by Williams Crenshaw’s deep expertise on race and gender politics, and sharpened by the constant defense for the need for both to be discussed, the memoir is both grounded and resolute. The vignettes that form her perspective land with a familiarity that pulls you in. The fury when the Lorraine Hansberry play she poured into was replaced with a colorblind production of Blackboard Jungle. The expansion that comes as she leaves Ohio for Cornell. The sense that we are walking the halls of Harvard beside her as she strategizes how to secure more diversity in faculty and coursework.
