Lifting as They Climbed - by Mariame Kaba & Essence McDowell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An essential guidebook to influential Black women from Chicago's South and West Sides, and their social, cultural, and artistic contributions to movements both past and present.

Geographically, historically, and politically, Lifting As They Climbed gives readers an in-depth understanding of the numerous Black women, from the nineteenth century to today, who empower(ed) their neighborhoods and communities. Structured as five self-guided tours, with crisp maps and accessible narratives, Lifting As They Climbed showcases seventy-eight women-activists, artists, musicians, and more--through sites and landmarks on Chicago's South and West Sides.

Including Margaret Burroughs, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mahalia Jackson, and many others, this updated and extended edition is a testament to women whose stories have gone largely untold, and whose lives reveal powerful connections between their endeavors and present-day struggles for radical community-building and solidarity. With no "official" landmarks to preserve the history of their social justice efforts, this book is an intervention against their erasure.

Review Quotes

"A journey through the pages of Lifting as they Climbed and you will never walk Chicago's Southside streets again without remembering the amazing Black women that lived, worked, struggled, taught and worshiped there. Mariame Kaba and Essence McDowell conjure up Black women's history as lived experience on the streets of Chicago in this book. It is a tribute, a loving reclamation of memory, and a precious family album, all in one." -Barbara Ransby, historian, author, activist

About the Author

Mariame Kaba is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization with a vision to end youth incarceration, the author of We Do This 'Til We Free Us as well as the children's books Missing Daddy and See You Soon, and the recipient of the Cultural Freedom Prize from the Lannan Foundation.

Essence McDowell is a writer, researcher, and communications strategist who has worked with numerous organizations including the Illinois Humanities Council, Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, INCITE!, Black Feminist Future, Chicago Public Library, and the Cook County Historic Archives. She is currently the director of arts and communications at the Social Justice Initiative and community organizing to create a resource hub for a national Black Women's Organizing Coalition.