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How Bright the Path Grows
The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the March on Washington
Marcia Chatelain(0)
About
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise comes the untold story of the pioneering Black women who were seen, but barely heard, at the 1963 March on Washington
There is no shortage of footage immortalizing the men who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when 250,000 Americans gathered beneath the Lincoln Memorial to call for an end to segregation. There were reverends and rabbis, activists and Rat-Pack icons—and of course the day's headliner, whose prophetic dream of a post-Jim Crow world has forever defined the Civil Rights Movement. But there is no “class photo” of the Black women who helped organize the march, performed on its main stage, or were honored during its Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom.
In The Tribute, Marcia Chatelain weaves a gleaming group portrait of these unsung women. Among this cohort were several household names: vaudeville legend Josephine Baker, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and opera diva Marian Anderson. But many were relative unknowns, including Eva Jessye, the choir director who designed the day’s musical program; and Anna Hedgeman, the coordinator who pushed in the eleventh hour for a tribute to Black women’s work.
The first in a trilogy of histories exploring the long shadow of Dr. King's life and legacy, The Tribute is a scintillating group biography, rendering the lives of thirteen Black women visionaries—some famous, others soon to be—in novelistic detail and like never seen before.
There is no shortage of footage immortalizing the men who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when 250,000 Americans gathered beneath the Lincoln Memorial to call for an end to segregation. There were reverends and rabbis, activists and Rat-Pack icons—and of course the day's headliner, whose prophetic dream of a post-Jim Crow world has forever defined the Civil Rights Movement. But there is no “class photo” of the Black women who helped organize the march, performed on its main stage, or were honored during its Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom.
In The Tribute, Marcia Chatelain weaves a gleaming group portrait of these unsung women. Among this cohort were several household names: vaudeville legend Josephine Baker, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and opera diva Marian Anderson. But many were relative unknowns, including Eva Jessye, the choir director who designed the day’s musical program; and Anna Hedgeman, the coordinator who pushed in the eleventh hour for a tribute to Black women’s work.
The first in a trilogy of histories exploring the long shadow of Dr. King's life and legacy, The Tribute is a scintillating group biography, rendering the lives of thirteen Black women visionaries—some famous, others soon to be—in novelistic detail and like never seen before.