LITHUB: Five Books All Young Women Should Read

Literary Hub
Kio Stark recommends... Rachel Devlin, A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America’s Schools

For years leading up to the national Brown vs. Board of Education decision that outlawed school segregation, young women and girls all over the South brought local lawsuits against their all-white public schools and colleges and fought for the right to attend. They went to the doors of schools every morning knowing they would be mocked and condescended and turned away. These pioneers’ stories have been glossed over by histories of the civil rights movement until now. When they won, they were the “firsts.”They were taunted, spat on, called racist names, and put in physical danger, and they stood up to all of it. This is essential American history—it’s the history of how we got where we are, it’s a history of how student activism changed the world by fighting against powerful forces. It’s your history. Those girls share a lineage with every student activist: #MeToo, gun violence, Black Lives Matter, abortion rights. The book is about knowing the past and knowing your power.