cover image Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering

Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering

Rosemarie Freeney Harding, with Rachel Elizabeth Harding. Duke Univ., $24.95 trade paper (328p) ISBN 978-0-8223-5879-4

This collaboration between the late social justice activist and organizer Harding and her daughter Rachel Elizabeth (A Refuge in Thunder) is a spirited compilation of ecumenical history, folk wisdom, fiction, memoir, and poetry. Harding, who died in 2004, developed and crafted the bulk of this endearingwork that traces the unique history of African Americans in the southern U.S. and their mystic divine belief that transcends monotheism. The central message of Harding’s life is abiding love, passed down through generations, strengthened in the aftermath of grief, racial terrorism, and trauma. The book also tells the unusual story of Mennonite House, a pioneering center of interracial activism in Atlanta co-founded by Harding and her husband, and offers other insights that shape its powerful narrative. (May)