Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement
Written by Tanisha Ford
Narrated by Allyson Johnson
4/5
()
About this audiobook
An engrossing social history and memoir 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 event rivalling today’s Met Gala, drawing America’s wealthy and cultured, both Black and white.
Our Secret Society 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.
No 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.
Historian 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, including with Mollie’s daughter and namesake.
Our Secret Society 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.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Tanisha Ford
Tanisha C. Ford is a writer, researcher, and cultural critic working at the intersection of politics and culture. She has forged an international reputation for her groundbreaking research on the history of Black style/fashion and social movements. Tanisha was honored as one of The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans. She is currently a professor of history at The Graduate Center, CUNY, where she teaches courses on African American and African diaspora history, biography and memoir, and the geopolitics of fashion. Tanisha lives in Harlem.
Related to Our Secret Society
Related audiobooks
An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter's Love Story in Black and White Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Always Knew: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Solange Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbought and Unbossed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Black Joy Project Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Token Black Girl: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Say I'm Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Say Babylon: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Love You Save: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dreams Bigger Than Texas: A Story of Faith, Purpose, Perseverance, and Growth into Womanhood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Can't Wait to Call You My Wife: African American Letters of Love and Family in the Civil War Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Negra: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saying It Loud: 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Powerful: Appearance, Substance, and Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Walk Through Fire: A memoir of love, loss, and triumph Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Far from Home: My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Cultural, Ethnic & Regional Biographies For You
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making a Scene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just as I Am: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Survival of the Thickest: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unprotected: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Exotic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heavy: An American Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Living Remedy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creep: Accusations and Confessions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Our Secret Society
1 rating0 reviews