Hudson’s vivid account of his childhood and young adulthood combines fond recollections of childhood with memories of events that led to his determination to become an activist. Hudson writes about growing up in Mansfield, Louisiana, with a lively sense of immediacy, drawing readers into that time and place, his family, neighborhood, and community. One of eight siblings, his was a childhood of baseball, school, church. Entertaining escapades, lively personalities, and meaningful relationships are revealed throughout this captivating narrative. He was a junior in high school in 1963, a year he describes as one of awakening as violent pushback against civil rights activists and other shocking events opened his eyes to how much he hadn’t been taught, and wanted to learn and do. He set off for college at Southern University with activism on his mind. This memoir opens with his arrest five years after he left for college on trumped up charges, and ends with his release from jail, and his determination to continue fighting for the lives and dignity of Black people. (Age 12 and older)