Until There Is Justice

Until There Is Justice tells the complex, moving story of the remarkable civil rights figure Anna Arnold Hedgeman, who played a key role in more than half a century of social justice initiatives. Hedgeman ought to be a household name like her colleagues, including A. Philip Randolph, Betty Friedan, and Martin Luther King Jr., but until now she has received only a fraction of the attention she deserves.
Through a commitment to faith-based activism, civil rights, and feminism, Anna Arnold Hedgeman participated in and led some of the 20th century's most important developments, including advances in education, public health, politics, and workplace justice. She worked as a teacher, lobbyist, politician, social worker, and activist, often behind the scenes but always crafting as well as carrying out policy. She repeatedly found herself a woman among men, a black American among whites, and a secular Christian among clergy, but she found ways to maintain all of those conflicting identities and work with others to forge a common humanity.
Hedgeman cared deeply for the dignity and welfare of all people, acting most passionately on behalf of the dispossessed. She helped black and Puerto Rican Americans achieve critical civil service employment in New York City during the Great Depression, directed national efforts for permanent fair labor legislation after World War II, coordinated the first organized attempt by black Americans to influence a presidential election, orchestrated white religious Americans' participation in the 1963 March on Washington, and introduced a broad and inclusive agenda as a founder of the National Organization for Women.
Here finally is the story of this dignified woman and scrappy freedom fighter, devout Christian and demanding feminist, accomplished political operative and savvy grassroots organizer, proud American and insistent African American voice.

William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of the Humanities in Gender and Women's Studies, Bowdoin College; author, Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown (Oxford University Press, 2009; paperback, Penguin, 2010)

Prologue: A Purposeful Life
1. A Midwestern Childhood
2. Education: The First Measure of Independence
3. Teaching in the Segregated South
4. Heading North to Spread the Word: The YWCA Years
5. Harlem and Brooklyn in the Great Depression
6. World War II: If Ever There Were a Time for Racial Justice
7. Fighting for Fair Employment, Fighting for Truman
8. "New World Citizen": Developing a National Portfolio, an International Consciousness, and an FBI File
9. Running for Political Office, Securing a Spot in City Hall
10. " A Burr in the Saddle": Anna Arnold Hedgeman, White Protestants, and the March on Washington
11. The 'Double Handicap' of Sex and Race: The March on Washington
12. Religious Activism for Racial Justice: The Commission on Religion and Race
13. Black Power, White Power, Woman Power, Christian Power
14. Refusing Retirement: The Hedgeman Consultant Service
Epilogue: Fighting for Heaven, Right Here on Earth: The Legacies