Revealing the struggles, joys, love and ongoing resilience it took to grow up Black in segregated America, the author, who came of age during the Civil Rights Movement, learned the importance of fighting for change. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)

"The memoir of Wade Hudson, a Black man and Civil Rights activist who came of age in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

As the fight for equal rights continues, Defiant takes a critical look at the strides and struggles of the past in this revelatory and moving memoir about a young Black man growing up in the South during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. For fans of It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime, Stamped, and Brown Girl Dreaming.

"With his compelling memoir, Hudson will inspire young readers to
emulate his ideals and accomplishments.” –Booklist, Starred Review
 
Born in 1946 in Mansfield, Louisiana, Wade Hudson came of age against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. From their home on Mary Street, his close-knit family watched as the country grappled with desegregation, as the Klan targeted the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and as systemic racism struck across the nation and in their hometown.

Amidst it all, Wade was growing up. Getting into scuffles, playing baseball, immersing himself in his church community, and starting to write. Most important, Wade learned how to find his voice and use it. From his family, his community, and his college classmates, Wade learned the importance of fighting for change by confronting the laws and customs that marginalized and demeaned people.

This powerful memoir reveals the struggles, joys, love, and ongoing resilience that it took to grow up Black in segregated America, and the lessons that carry over to our fight for a better future. - (Random House, Inc.)

Wade Hudson is an author, a publisher, and the president and CEO of Just Us Books, Inc., an independent publisher of books for children and young adults. He has published over thirty books, including the anthologies We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, which received four starred reviews; The Talk, which earned four starred reviews and was a New York Times Best Book of the Year; and Recognize: Black Lives Matter. These powerful collections were co-edited with his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson.

Defiant is Wade’s homage to the Black people he knew in Mansfield as much as it is his story about growing up there. These were the people who nurtured and loved him even as they fought for their own survival under Jim Crow. It is also the story of a youngster trying to find meaning and purpose in a defining era where issues such as civil rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and resistance against the Vietnam War played out regularly on the news. It is about finding one’s voice and joining the fight for justice and equality.

Wade lives in East Orange, New Jersey, with his wife. - (Random House, Inc.)

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* In 1988, author Wade Hudson founded a publishing company with his wife, Cheryl Hudson, to provide the books for Black children and young adults that he wished he'd had as a young Black boy growing up in Mansfield, Louisiana. This admirable memoir is a welcome addition to those works. Hudson begins by recounting how, shortly after finishing university, he finds himself in solitary confinement in a Baton Rouge jail, accused of conspiracy to murder the mayor and other officials; he was falsely targeted because of his civil rights activism and leadership of an organization that helped Black kids. He then flashes back to his 1950s and '60s childhood, playing football and baseball and idolizing icons like Jackie Robinson. He loved writing poetry and short stories but never imagined becoming a writer because he thought that was only for white people. He recalls how civil rights activists of the time inspired his own activism, and his explanation of his desperate plan to avoid the Vietnam War draft is especially riveting. Hudson effectively draws parallels between current civil rights protests, like Colin Kaepernick's taking a knee, to historical events, showing readers that today's protests are a continuation of the social rights protests of the past. With his compelling memoir, Hudson will inspire young readers to emulate his ideals and accomplishments. Grades 6-8. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Co-founder (with his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson) of the pioneering Black publishing company Just Us Books, Wade Hudson here recalls his childhood and teen years in the small northern Louisiana town of Mansfield in the 1950s and 1960s. Hudson opens and closes the memoir with an account of being arrested on a ginned-up conspiracy charge while he was a student activist at Southern University in Baton Rouge. In between, we see his formative years in Mansfield, where as a seventh grader he notes, I could count on one hand the number of White kids my age that I had seen. Church, current events, and baseball (pitcher Vida Blue was a teammate) were Wade's preoccupations, as well as a growing racial consciousness nurtured by all of the above. The telling is plainspoken and direct, and the town, filled with friends and extended family, is practically a character in itself. It takes a village, indeed. Appended matter includes notes, sources, and a timeline to place Hudson's story within its tumultuous context. Copyright 2023 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

Co-founder (with his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson) of the pioneering Black publishing company Just Us Books, Wade Hudson here recalls his childhood and teen years in the small northern Louisiana town of Mansfield in the 1950s and 1960s. Hudson opens and closes the memoir with an account of being arrested on a ginned-up conspiracy charge while he was a student activist at Southern University in Baton Rouge. In between, we see his formative years in Mansfield, where as a seventh grader he notes, "I could count on one hand the number of White kids my age that I had seen." Church, current events, and baseball (pitcher Vida Blue was a teammate) were Wade's preoccupations, as well as a growing racial consciousness nurtured by all of the above. The telling is plainspoken and direct, and the town, filled with friends and extended family, is practically a character in itself. It takes a village, indeed. Appended matter includes notes, sources, and a timeline to place Hudson's story within its tumultuous context. Roger Sutton November/December 2021 p.131 Copyright 2021 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

Hudson enlightens young readers about his civil rights–era experiences that set the foundation for a lifelong commitment to fighting for justice. Alongside his wife and business partner, Cheryl Willis Hudson, Hudson has been on a celebrated run delivering diverse texts for young readers. This memoir provides witness to the formative experiences that shaped him, beginning in Mansfield, Louisiana, one of many "small rural towns across the South that White people controlled virtually unimpeded," where the Black community demonstrated how "creative, resilient, dedicated, tough, and loving they were." Readers follow his journey through school, honing his writing skills and being mentored by great teachers. In a world rife with segregation and unequal resources, Hudson excels with his community's support, becoming the first in his family to attend college. This is the mid-1960s, and his eyes are set on role models like trailblazer Thurgood Marshall. He's transformed by the Black literature of Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Margaret Walker, and others and present to heed the call of rising student activism. Readers will be awed by what it means to find one's purpose during a metamorphic time in history and contribute to progressive social change—then bring it all back home to those who set you flowing in the first place. Strong storytelling and significant cultural references shine throughout. This will be a powerful read alongside the contemporary, award-winning texts that the Hudsons have nurtured. Powerful testimony from a children's literature legend. (historical notes, sources, timeline) (Memoir. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus 2021 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

PW Annex Reviews

In this absorbing, conversational memoir, writer and cofounder of Just Us Books Hudson (b. 1946) begins in media res, starting with his jailing over fabricated evidence "a little more than five years" after moving from Mansfield, La., to attend Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he and fellow community activists attempt to "deal with conditions in the Black community caused principally by racism and discrimination." From there, Hudson jumps further back to his youth, detailing childhood "shenanigans" with his close-knit family as well as personal reflections on significant events, such as how the successes of Jackie Robinson and other Black athletes encouraged Black youth to consider sports stardom a viable dream. The colloquial narrative effectively offers a glimpse into a segregated civil rights–era Southern experience, while gently surveying figures in Hudson's community. On his father serving in WWII, Hudson writes gracefully, "My father had risked his life for democracy, but, for him, freedom remained just a stale hope, a wishful thought, an unfulfilled dream." Adroitly providing cultural references and historical context, Hudson traces his life through young adulthood, discussing his education and involvement in the civil rights movement within a powerful framework and conclusion. Front matter features a preface; back matter includes an afterword, notes, sources, and a timeline. Ages 10–up. (Oct.)

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 9 Up—The author, publisher, and civil rights activist spent his formative years in Mansfield, Louisiana. Nicknamed Brother, Hudson was introduced to leadership at an early age as he began to organize baseball teams, plays, and other projects. The adults in his life saw this natural ability and began to encourage him to hone these skills. While his life was filled with family, faith, and love, Hudson was slowly becoming aware of the injustices inflicted on his community. He noticed the ways Jim Crow laws impacted the lives of his friends and family and wondered why. His desire for progress led him to create the civil rights organization S.O.U.L (Society for Opportunity, Unity, and Leadership). The organization and the police's response to it would lead Hudson to a life of activism. This memoir offers a snapshot of a community enriched by love and chained by systemic racism. VERDICT A great pick for public and school libraries looking for firsthand accounts of the effects of Jim Crow on young people.—Desiree Thomas, Worthington Lib., OH