Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain

The Extraordinary Story of Love, Civil Rights, and Labor Activism

Norman Hill

• Publisher: Regalo Press
• Year: 2023
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9798888452837
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

The remarkable story of a couple who came together during the civil rights movement and made fighting for equality and civil and workers' rights their purpose for more than sixty years, overcoming adversity—with the strength of their love and commitment—to bring about meaningful change. "A chronicle of lives of unwavering dedication. Now in their 80s, labor and civil rights activists Norman and Velma Hill recount more than six decades of struggles, triumphs, and frustrations in their tireless work as 'crusaders for democracy.'... An inspiring joint memoir." — Kirkus Reviews When Velma Murphy was knocked unconscious by a brick thrown by a man from an angry white mob and was carried away by Norman Hill, it was the beginning of a six-decade-long love story and the turmoil, excitement, and struggle for civil rights and labor movements. In Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain, the Hills reflect upon their more than half a century of fighting to make America realize the best of itself.Through profound conversations between the two, Velma and Norman Hill share their earliest memories of facing racial segregation in the 1960s, working with Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, and A. Philip Randolph, crossing paths with Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. They also reveal how they kept white supremacists like David Duke from taking office, organized workers into unions, met with Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and continued to work tirelessly, fighting the good fight and successfully challenging power with truth.

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• A Note to Readers
• Introduction
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: Wade In the Water, Desegregating Rainbow Beach
• Chapter 2: A New Beachhead
• Chapter 3: Norman—The Molding of an Activist
• Chapter 4: Velma—A Path Well Chosen
• Chapter 5: For Jobs and Freedom
• Chapter 6: Home, an Anchor in the Storm
• Chapter 7: CORE, Crossroads, and Lightning Rods
• Chapter 8: Go Tell It on the Mountain—The Paraprofessionals
• Chapter 9: A Triumph of the Paraprofessionals and a Soulful Solidarity
• Chapter 10: The Next Logical Step—The A. Philip Randolph Institute
• Chapter 11: Yet Another River to Cross
• Chapter 12: Climbing through Dark Clouds
• Chapter 13: Norman Hill Speaks
• Chapter 14: The Struggle Doesn’t Stop at the Water’s Edge
• Epilogue: A Clear View from the Rough Side of the Mountain
• Appendix
• Appendix A: The Paraprofessionals
• Appendix B: A Vision of Racial and Economic Justice
• Appendix C: A 2017 Conversation with William Julius Wilson
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors