{"product_id":"our-secret-society-mollie-moon-and-the-glamour-money-and-power-behind-the-civil-rights-movement-isbn-9780063115712","title":"Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWINNER 2024 NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK BIOGRAPHY\/AUTOBIOGRAPHY\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn engrossing social history of the unsinkable Mollie Moon, the stylish founder of the National Urban League Guild and fundraiser extraordinaire who reigned over the glittering \"Beaux Arts Ball,” the social event of New York and Harlem society for fifty years—a glamorous soiree rivaling today’s Met Gala, drawing America’s wealthy and cultured, both Black and white.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e brilliantly illuminates a little known yet highly significant aspect of the civil rights movement that has been long overlooked—the powerhouse fundraising effort that supported the movement—the luncheons, galas, cabarets, and traveling exhibitions attended by middle-class and working-class Black families, the Negro press, and titans of industry, including Winthrop Rockefeller.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNo one knew this world better or ruled over it with more authority than Mollie Moon. With her husband Henry Lee Moon, the longtime publicist for the NAACP, Mollie became half of one of the most influential couples of the period. Vivacious and intellectually curious, Mollie frequently hosted political salons attended by guests ranging from Langston Hughes to Lorraine Hansberry. As the president of the National Urban League Guild, the fundraising arm of the National Urban League; Mollie raised millions to fund grassroots activists battling for economic justice and racial equality. She was a force behind the mutual aid network that connected Black churches, domestic and blue-collar laborers, social clubs, and sororities and fraternities across the country.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHistorian and cultural critic Tanisha C. Ford brings Mollie into focus as never before, charting her rise from Jim Crow Mississippi to doyenne of Manhattan and Harlem, where she became one of the most influential philanthropists of her time—a woman feared, resented, yet widely respected. She chronicles Mollie’s larger-than-life antics through exhaustive research, never-before-revealed letters, and dozens of interviews.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e ushers us into a world with its own rhythm and rules, led by its own Who’s Who of African Americans in politics, sports, business, and entertainment. It is both a searing portrait of a remarkable period in America, spanning from the early 1930s through the late 1960s, and a strategic economic blueprint today’s activists can emulate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e includes 16 pages of never-before-seen photographs.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"In \u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society, \u003c\/em\u003eTanisha Ford expertly uses the extravagant life of Mollie Moon to tell the hidden history of the Civil Rights Movement: a complicated tale of how the movement was funded. Captivating. Gripping. Smart.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIbram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A vivid behind-the-scenes snapshot of a dazzling era.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In \u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e, Tanisha Ford chronicles the exhilarating life of Mollie Moon. With cinematic sweep and methodological innovation, Ford brilliantly challenges received narratives of black politics and imaginatively forges new ways of knowing and understanding social movements and the little known but indispensable roles Black women like Moon have played in them. This book is beautifully written, with the passion, wit and style of its subject. A stunning accomplishment.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFarah Jasmine Griffin, author of the award-winning Read Until You Understand\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In \u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society, \u003c\/em\u003eTanisha Ford follows the money and reveals an \u003cstrong\u003eastonishing, untold story\u003c\/strong\u003e of Black women who drove the civil rights movement by commanding the Black freedom financial grid. Following the escapades of the captivatingly brilliant Mollie Lewis Moon…this dazzlingly told rise and fall of the movement’s ‘bag women’ – savvy, sensational, but also burned by sexism – is a tale for our own times about the hazards of mixing politics and philanthropy in the interest of Black liberation.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMartha Jones, author of Vanguard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In \u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e, Mollie Moon finally gets long overdue credit for the critical role she played in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. Writing with care and passion, Tanisha Ford shows how Moon combined her commitment to activism with her love of the social whirl and emerged as a fundraising genius…This is \u003cstrong\u003ean essential read\u003c\/strong\u003e that broadens our understanding of the centrality of Black women in the movement. Ford’s work is as \u003cstrong\u003ebrilliant\u003c\/strong\u003e, as lively, and as gorgeous as Mollie Moon herself.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJill Watts, author of The Black Cabinet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This riveting, beautifully-crafted investigation of the money moves of the Civil Rights Movement’s “bag women” shows Tanisha Ford, one of our nation’s top historians, at her absolute finest. Here is the rare text that celebrates the working-class—small dollar donors that made a movement possible—while reminding us of the intellectual prowess and political savvy of the Black women power brokers who put their community’s money to its highest uses: the pursuit of Black freedom.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrittney Cooper, New York Times Bestselling author of Eloquent Rage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This is a story I will treasure for a lifetime.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKia Goosby, Vanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The brilliant Tanisha C. Ford has recovered the sparkling story of Mollie Moon, whose fundraising helped support the work of the civil rights movement. With rigorous research and signature finesse, Ford illustrates the oft-forgotten centrality of women in the movement.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMs.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“You shouldn’t miss \u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e. You need to know about this almost-hidden slice of history. You’ll like this book one hundred percent.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement\" rescues from an undeserved obscurity one of the truly significant women who made the Civil Rights Movement the success that it was (and continues to be) as a much-needed national tool to continue to establish racial equality in our still racially turbulent American politics and culture.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMidwest Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eOur Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e is a fascinating book that brings readers into the personal side of politics and movement building—through the life of a Black woman. All the tea. All the politics. The parties. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at everything Black. I love this book.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMichael Harriot, New York Times Bestselling author of Black AF History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Our Secret Society\u003c\/em\u003e is a gem and a MUST HAVE in every Black woman’s personal library!\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCandice Marie Benbow, author of Red Lip Theology\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Amistad","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44890516226277,"sku":"NP9780063115712","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063115712.jpg?v=1730233466","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/our-secret-society-mollie-moon-and-the-glamour-money-and-power-behind-the-civil-rights-movement-isbn-9780063115712","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}