From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir

by Endesha Ida Mae Holland

After being raped by a white employer at the age of 11, Holland became a rebel, turning to prostitution and delinquency. But when she stumbled across the civil rights movement she found herself developing in to a leader-only to encounter the cruelest retribution at the hands of white bigots that she could ever have imagined.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, African American

334 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 1997

Reviews

[Mitchell Bradford III · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're from Mississippi, you should read this book. If you're at all interested in the history of civil rights in this country, you should read this book. And if the project of being human interests you, you should definitely read this book.

This will leave you cringing and crying, laughing and loving, but mostly emotionally wrecked. I'm honored to have gotten to know this cast of individuals, each struggling to make a way out of no way.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read anything that detailed even some of the struggles during the civil rights movement of the 60's. While that is only a small portion of this book I found it extremely interesting. The life that Ida had to overcome was unbelievable.

As a young person she made many bad choices but she owns up to them and given the environment that she was born into it is a wonder that she didn't end up worse.

[Consuelo Cruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really a good book, it's so realistic and it made me feel a lot, I could imagine all the things written and I really felt the things that she lived. A beautiful story about a woman who grew up just because of her and the women that supported her in an awkward and difficult context to be a woman and to be a black woman. She spokes about racism, sexism, rape maternity and other topics, and everything feel so real and accurate.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I knew nothing of this remarkable woman until seeing and hearing her interviewed in the documentary "Freedom on My Mind," televised this year on TCM. Her frank, open -- my God, SMILING -- telling of the horrors of growing up in the grindingly impoverished, feudal Jim Crow South made me seek out first her Wikipedia biography and then her book. It is a completely unvarnished yet supremely literate telling of her life -- one that should be made into a film. Which is unlikely to happen, not so much because Hollywood is racist but because Hollywood prefers sentimental tripe and will never honestly depict the more sordid aspects of Holland's story. A life transformed by an imaginative mind and strong will: Utterly compelling read.

[gnarlyhiker · Rating 5 out of 5]

first read in 1998 and it's still a fav.

[Tim Ozinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a memoir about a black Mississippi civil rights worker. I read it in preparation for seeing a musical based on the book, both were excellent

[Doris Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

compelling a great read

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think about her all the time.

[Diann Blakely]

This simultaneously hilarious and horrific life story of playwright and civil rights activist Endesha Ida Mae Holland opens with a note that echoes throughout. In poetic but colloquial language, Holland describes a terrifying dream of fire that scorches and melts her limbs as she reaches toward her burning mother. The reader is as abruptly jolted as the 9-year-old dreamer by the wide-awake exclamation of “Git up from here, gal—you done pissed in the bed!” Holland’s mother begins to swing her “spanking cord” even as her voice softens, protesting “Doncha be huggin’ on me, ol’ pishy gal!”

“Mama twirled the cord,” Holland writes, “ ’round and ’round her head like Lash LaRue, the white cowboy dressed all in black we saw up at the Walthall picture show.” The trope speaks volumes about America’s racial wounds, then as now.

Another crucial early scene, the grotesque rape Holland suffers at the pale hands of a man dying of heart failure and his insanely “helpful” wife, is all the more wrenching for its fluidly imagistic and tonal riffings between past and present, between reportage and meditation, between adult horror and childlike bewilderment. A few chapters later, Holland ably evokes blues humor when she recounts her introduction to the civil rights movement: Having begun turning tricks to ease financial desperation, one afternoon Holland trails the renowned and upright Robert Moses into Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s local headquarters, hoping to find a paying customer. Instead, she becomes a vigorous worker in the organization, frightening her mother as well as neighbors who fear a reawakening Klan’s reprisals. Their fear is justified: Holland’s story achieves a tragic, brutal crescendo; nonetheless, she rises quite literally from ashes to become a student at the University of Minnesota and later a playwright.




(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE)

[sweet pea · Rating 4 out of 5]

i knew of 'Cat' from her Civil Rights work, so it surprised me that we didn't get to that until 2/3 of the way through the book. but the earlier sections set the scene for what life was like in the Delta and illuminate the feisty personality of the author. a good portion of the characters mentioned deserve their own book, like the colorful Scarecrow Magee, Neddie Ruth, and Dossie Reed. Holland tells her tale with warmth and love, despite the poverty, racism, and lack of education her community endured. her stories of the Civil Rights Movement are classic, with her taking the lead and the brunt of white disapproval for her beliefs. an inspiring memoir.

[Jo Ann Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

After moving to the Jackson, Mississippi, area last summer, I began to immerse myself in the local history and found the role of Mississippians in the Civil Rights Movement to be particularly interesting. I've found that it's nearly impossible for a thinking, feeling person not to experience the sense of the sacred here in this place where so many gave their own lives for the betterment of society.

Endesha Ida Mae Holland, a born story-teller, recreates her Greenwood upbringing and early adulthood with candor and vibrant language, resulting in a memoir which inspires so boldly, I can't imagine a reader who could leave it undetermined to improve his or her lot in life and the world.

[CC · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit lengthy (in a negative way), but more than worth the read. An excellent memoir on the life of a complicated, brilliant, and brave woman, who's experienced everything from rape, prostitution, motherhood, robbery, and intensely violent civil rights activism in the deep, deep South. I dare you to read this book and not choke up at least once.

[Cherisse]

A poignant first hand account of the ravages of racism and discrimination and the long-term mettle necessary to overcome its effects. I have the good fortune to know Margaret Block, a former SNCC activist and sister of Sam Block who is mentioned in the book. Ms. Block knew Endesha "Cat" well and confirmed the truthfulness of her story.

[Tiarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book amongst a box of many others was gifted to me by a friend's mother. I did not think that I would get much from it however I was pleasantly mistaken. Although there are many scenes that make me cringe, it is a great reminder that we can change our lives around at any moment we choose. I was truly inspired.

[Jerald Cosey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and authentic look at our American history. Keep reading because you will eventually want to burn through the pages. I just completed and I'm encourage to write myself. This is a must read.

[lita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Encouraging!

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a class. I remember very vaguely seeing it performed in the early 1990s, so it was interesting to revisit it 20 years later in script form.