Marching for Freedom

No cover, alas, for the forthcoming Elizabeth Partridge book (Putnam, 2009, October). MARCHING FOR FREEDOM is a chronicle of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. I have certainly read other accounts of the various events in the Civil Rights Movement, but Partiridge's strength (well, one of them) is her ability to put the reader squarely in the middle of the fray so that you feel the raw power of the emotions, sense the dangers, feel the pain. MARCHING FOR FREEDOM does all this and more as it follows the events leading up to the March through the eyes od some of the youngest marchers: the children and teens who joined in the protests because the adults might lose jobs or worse. The slim book reads like fiction: the central figures are the characters who connect to us through empathetic bonds, binds Partridge creates in her inimitable style.