Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Algonquin Books (2019), 304 pages
Description
Biography & Autobiography. African American Nonfiction. Nonfiction. HTML:â??Dovey Johnson Roundtree set a new path for women and proved that the vision and perseverance of a single individual can turn the tides of history.â?ť â??Michelle Obama In Mighty Justice, trailblazing African American civil rights attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree recounts her inspiring life story that speaks movingly and urgently to our racially troubled times. From the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, to the segregated courtrooms of the nationâ??s capital; from the male stronghold of the army where she broke gender and color barriers to the pulpits of churches where women had waited for years for the right to ministerâ??in all these places, Roundtree sought justice. At a time when African American attorneys had to leave the courthouses to use the bathroom, Roundtree took on Washingtonâ??s white legal establishment and prevailed, winning a 1955 landmark bus desegregation case that would help to dismantle the practice of â??separate but equalâ?ť and shatter Jim Crow laws. Later, she led the vanguard of women ordained to the ministry in the AME Church in 1961, merging her law practice with her ministry to fight for families and children being destroyed by urban violence. Dovey Roundtree passed away in 2018 at the age of 104. Though her achievements were significant and influential, she remains largely unknown to the American public. Mighty Justice correct… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member nancyadair
Mighty Justice begins with a powerful chapter of Dovey remembering her grandmother's nightly ritual of soothing her gnarled and twisted feet after a day of nonstop work. Hearing the story of how her feet were broken, and the courage she showed standing up to power, is unforgettable.
Each chapter is
Out of our indebtedness I believe, our real selves are born. For it is when we grasp what we owe, how beholden we truly are, that we remain children no longer. ~Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Mighty Justice
But Dovey herself also was a mentor, ministering to her people. She was a defender of the weak and a rectifier of injustice. She came to recognize that children were the victims of racism and violence and how children mirrored the violence in their lives through their actions. She came to believe that in ministering to children and changing their lives, "redemption is truly possible."
Determined to change the world, Dovey earned a law degree, was in the first wave of African American women in the Women's Army Auxillary Corps championed by her grandmother's friend Mary McLeod Bethune, argued at the bar for an end to segregation on the railways, and was one of the first women to be ordained in the African Methodist Church. Each chapter of her life is riveting and thrilling with a story arc all its own. The law cases were well presented in their historical context with moving insight into Dovey's personal dedication and hopes.
And the ending of the book, Benediction, brings the story full circle, back to the inspiring grandmother whose example first inspired Dovey.
Katie McCabe words have recreated Roundtree's voice in a narrative that is thrilling and moving.
I received an ARC from the publisher through a LibraryThing giveaway in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Each chapter is
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vividly rendered in Dovey's voice, telling her story of accomplishing what most would have deemed impossible. The remarkable people who inspired and mentored Dovey over her life are lovingly portrayed, from her grandmother to Mary McLeod Bethune, her teacher Mary Mae Neptune who personally sacrificed to keep Dovey in college, Julius Winfield Robertson who became her law partner, her pastors, her family and those she adopted as family.Out of our indebtedness I believe, our real selves are born. For it is when we grasp what we owe, how beholden we truly are, that we remain children no longer. ~Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Mighty Justice
But Dovey herself also was a mentor, ministering to her people. She was a defender of the weak and a rectifier of injustice. She came to recognize that children were the victims of racism and violence and how children mirrored the violence in their lives through their actions. She came to believe that in ministering to children and changing their lives, "redemption is truly possible."
Determined to change the world, Dovey earned a law degree, was in the first wave of African American women in the Women's Army Auxillary Corps championed by her grandmother's friend Mary McLeod Bethune, argued at the bar for an end to segregation on the railways, and was one of the first women to be ordained in the African Methodist Church. Each chapter of her life is riveting and thrilling with a story arc all its own. The law cases were well presented in their historical context with moving insight into Dovey's personal dedication and hopes.
And the ending of the book, Benediction, brings the story full circle, back to the inspiring grandmother whose example first inspired Dovey.
Katie McCabe words have recreated Roundtree's voice in a narrative that is thrilling and moving.
I received an ARC from the publisher through a LibraryThing giveaway in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
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LibraryThing member homeschoolmimzi
If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. Fascinating story of Dovey Johnson Roundtree, civil rights activist, attorney, minister, grandmother, foster mother and mentor. I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of Mrs. Roundtree until I received this book. How can it be that such important history
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makers are left out of school textbooks and classes on recent US history? Somehow Roundtree was left out of any history books I was raised on. I'm glad to learn of her life and story from this autobiography. I liked how Roundtree included bits and parts of all the different seasons of her life- as a child growing up, a student and college student, a law school student, a ministry student, an officer in the WACS, a wife, activist, law partner, writer, instructor. I was touched by her drivenness and her ultimate goal- to redeem, to free and to right injustices that came her way, no matter how hard it was. Her ambitions were not about herself, not about prestige, making a name for herself; she sincerely and humbly wanted to help people wrongly accused and to make a way for those discriminated against. Her courage and tenacity in the face of adversity, hatred and bigotry were admirable to say the least. A lesser person would have given up the fight when faced with the many obstacles thrown her way, by bigoted judges, hateful employers and scared peers. Throughout the book, Roundtree made a point to always mention her mentors who inspired and encouraged her to continue her battle and calling: her Grandmother Rachel, her teacher Miss Neptune, activist Dr Bethune and professor Dr Nabrit, as well as her first law partner Julius Winfield Robertson. Roundtree was a noble hero and left a legacy for the younger generation to aspire to. The co-writer of this book, Katie McCabe, did a fabulous job of research and interviewing as well as writing this story with Roundtree. Highly recommend this book to everyone. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookish59
D's review:
The subtitle "My Life in Civil Rights" is misleading. This is not a memoir of a little-known civil rights pioneer as much as it is the memoir of a pioneering black, female attorney.
Growing up in the Jim Crow south, Roundtree takes us on her improbable life's journey. Its a life of zigs
Her practice specialized in defending African-Americans in a court system that did not give them the presumption of innocence.
Thoroughly readable, we are presented with a life well-lived. And well told.
The subtitle "My Life in Civil Rights" is misleading. This is not a memoir of a little-known civil rights pioneer as much as it is the memoir of a pioneering black, female attorney.
Growing up in the Jim Crow south, Roundtree takes us on her improbable life's journey. Its a life of zigs
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and zags, heartbreak and triumph. From Howard University Law School to her Washington, D.C. law practice which included personal injury, criminal and yes, civil rights cases. She got the Interstate Commerce Commission to desegregate US buses, trains and stations. Her practice specialized in defending African-Americans in a court system that did not give them the presumption of innocence.
Thoroughly readable, we are presented with a life well-lived. And well told.
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LibraryThing member fdholt
Mighty justice : my life in civil rights is the story of Dovey Mae Johnson Roundtree as told to Katie McCabe. It begins with her life in the South where her family lived with her grandmother. After receiving a degree at Spelman College in Atlanta, Mrs. Roundtree is encouraged by family friend Mary
Katie McCabe organized the material which she amassed in over ten years of meeting with Mrs. Roundtree. She also has added an index and end notes mostly citing case law. There is also a list of suggested readings and seventeen questions for discussion. (I spent hours thinking about those questions and it was time well spent.) My advanced reading copy did not include the foreword by Tayari Jones which will be in the final copy.
What struck me as I read the book was the power and sincerity of Mrs. Roundtree's words. Her heroes were Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Spelman Professor Mae Neptune, and her grandmother, Rachel Graham. Compared to today's so-called civil rights leaders, these persons were giants who believed in non-violence and the dignity of all persons. Dovey Johnson Roundtree has a place among those great ones. This book should be required reading for today's generation of leaders and for those who want to know more about civil rights laws and how they changed the United States.
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McLeod Bethune to enter officer's training for the newly formed WAAC division of the U.S. Army, a need perceived as necessary in World War II. This was to be an integrated service but, as it turns out, it was segregation as usual. After the war, Mrs. Roundtree earned a law degree at Howard University and practiced law the rest of her life, involving herself in several high profile cases. In the era of segregation in education and public transportation, she fought the Interstate Commerce Commission on behalf of clients who lost their seats once the carrier crossed into the South, even though the law was clear that the practice was illegal. She also represented numerous clients from her neighborhood in the Washington neighborhood of Anacostia and from her church. In her sixties she felt a call to go into the ministry of the AME Church and was ordained, serving in Washington. She also dealt with severe medical issues, but it didn't stop her from striving to help others, especially children.Katie McCabe organized the material which she amassed in over ten years of meeting with Mrs. Roundtree. She also has added an index and end notes mostly citing case law. There is also a list of suggested readings and seventeen questions for discussion. (I spent hours thinking about those questions and it was time well spent.) My advanced reading copy did not include the foreword by Tayari Jones which will be in the final copy.
What struck me as I read the book was the power and sincerity of Mrs. Roundtree's words. Her heroes were Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Spelman Professor Mae Neptune, and her grandmother, Rachel Graham. Compared to today's so-called civil rights leaders, these persons were giants who believed in non-violence and the dignity of all persons. Dovey Johnson Roundtree has a place among those great ones. This book should be required reading for today's generation of leaders and for those who want to know more about civil rights laws and how they changed the United States.
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LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
I have only just begun the book, and I will post a more complete review after I finish it, but after reading just the early pages, I was so impressed that I wanted to recommend it immediately. It is timely, although it was written just over a decade ago when the author was in her 90's. Having lived
From the first page, it is difficult not to be touched by the brutal honesty of the writing. I am grateful to librarything.com for affording me the opportunity to discover this book. It is written without the hate that is so prevalent today, it is written instead with the love and purpose that seemed to once come from the mind and pen of Martin Luther King. This book should be required reading for all school children of any age able to comprehend it.
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through so much in the world of civil rights, she is an expert on the subject and begins her tale in the 1920’s. Her background and effort to further civil rights will be a compelling, inspirational read.From the first page, it is difficult not to be touched by the brutal honesty of the writing. I am grateful to librarything.com for affording me the opportunity to discover this book. It is written without the hate that is so prevalent today, it is written instead with the love and purpose that seemed to once come from the mind and pen of Martin Luther King. This book should be required reading for all school children of any age able to comprehend it.
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LibraryThing member amerynth
I received a free copy of Dovey Johnson Roundtree's memior "Mighty Justice: My life in civil rights" through LT's early reviewers program. I was unfamiliar with Roundtree but thought any book about the struggles of civil rights leaders would be a bit of a pick-me-up, and boy was I right about
Roundtree was a pioneering black woman -- joining the Army, becoming an attorney and ultimately a minister -- as well as arguing some interesting civil rights cases. Her story is terrific and is told really well. A born fighter, Roundtree is a shining example of how important it is to continue the struggle even when the deck seems stacked against you.
I think you'll need to have a bit of interest in legal cases to enjoy this book as there is a heavy focus on legal arguments at its core. Roundtree's story is an interesting one and I'm glad to have had a chance to read about her.
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that.Roundtree was a pioneering black woman -- joining the Army, becoming an attorney and ultimately a minister -- as well as arguing some interesting civil rights cases. Her story is terrific and is told really well. A born fighter, Roundtree is a shining example of how important it is to continue the struggle even when the deck seems stacked against you.
I think you'll need to have a bit of interest in legal cases to enjoy this book as there is a heavy focus on legal arguments at its core. Roundtree's story is an interesting one and I'm glad to have had a chance to read about her.
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LibraryThing member JanaRose1
This book recounts the life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree, a civil rights activist. I had a hard time getting into this book. Although Roundtree led a fascinating life, this book felt more like someone reflecting back, rather than telling a story. I think Roundtree's story is an important one to tell,
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however this book just didn't do her justice. Overall, a bust. Show Less
LibraryThing member babs605
Ms Roundtree is someone I had never heard of, but am so glad that I found her story. As someone who grew up in the south and witnessed the worst of racism, and became a lawyer who helped bring in the Civil Rights movement, she is a strong, intelligent woman who should be placed up with Dr. King,
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and have her story learned about. Show Less
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Having finished this remarkable woman's autobiography (originally published in 2009 under the title [Justice Older Than the Law], and updated for re-issue in November, 2019), it is incomprehensible to me why the name Dovey Johnson Roundtree does not resound with the same force as Harriet Tubman,
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Rosa Parks and Mary McCleod Bethune. Her accomplishments and her "firsts" place her right up there in the pantheon, not only of civil rights leaders, but of champions of the rights of women. The back cover blurb on my ARC (thank you LibraryThing Early Reviewer program) refers to her as a trailblazer. That she certainly was, and she wasn't satisfied with just one trail, either. With the support and influence of several equally dedicated and unstoppable women (including her beloved grandmother Rachel Bryant Graham; her English professor at Spelman College, Mae Neptune; and her grandmother's friend Mary McCleod Bethune, Dovey Johnson successfully rose to challenges so seemingly insurmountable that others in her circumstances might not even have seen them, let alone tackled them. She was part of the first “class” of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps where she fought for equal treatment of women in the military and recruited scores of African-American women to service in the WAAC. In 1942, she became the first woman of any race to receive a commission as an officer in the US Army. As a lawyer, she represented people who had few resources and little hope of successfully navigating “the system”; her diligence and determination won an acquittal for a black man accused of murdering a white Washington, DC, socialite in 1965. She took on the ICC, and won a case that eventually resulted in a ban on racial segregation in interstate bus travel. She fought for acceptance as a minister in the AME church, and captured another “first” when she became one of the first women to be granted the rite of ordination. Her life is so full of big moments it is hard to take it all in, and yet in her mind, she simply faced what came her way, and made the decisions that seemed to her right and inevitable. When that resulted in something just short of miraculous, she was usually as surprised as anyone. This book is the result of a dozen years of friendship and collaboration with Roundtree’s co-author, Katie McCabe. It is essential history. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member mdbrady
An autobiography by a vibrant civil rights activist and lawyer in the 1940s and 1950s.
Dovey Johnson Roundtree (1914-2018) was born and raised in poverty in Charlotte, North Carolina with a strong grandmother. Somehow she was able to attend Spellman in the 1930s where a white female professor
Katie McCabe, a white Washington, D.C. journalist, is the co-author of this book. She is a nationally-recognized non-fiction writer, known for writing about little-known individuals, many of them blacks. She initially contacted Roundtree for an article twelve years before her death at 104. The two became good friends and worked together to write Mighty Justice. Their book is not your average as-told-to production. The two women were able to blend their talents into a meaningful whole. Roundtree is always front and center with her own particular language and experiences, and McCabe is behind the scenes organizing and making the project into a compelling story. It first appeared as a memoir entitled Justice Older Than the Law, in 2009. The Association of Black Women Historians has awarded the book its prize for the best book on an African American woman
For a time in the 1940s and 1950s, Roundtree played a key role in the national legal struggle for Civil Rights. Anyone interested in that struggle will need to read this book. For the rest of us, Mighty Justice is simply a fascinating account of a black woman whose life made an important difference in our nation’s history and whose life contributes to our understanding of the variety of significant women. I recommend it strongly.
Dovey Johnson Roundtree (1914-2018) was born and raised in poverty in Charlotte, North Carolina with a strong grandmother. Somehow she was able to attend Spellman in the 1930s where a white female professor
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mentored her. As World War II was beginning, she went to Washington, D.C. where, as a protégée of Mary McCloud Bethune, she was among the first black women in the U.S. Army Officers Corp. After a brief marriage, she went to Howard Law School where she studied and worked with the critical cluster of black lawyers who were challenging segregation in the courts. A case of hers relating to interstate travel paralleled Brown vs. Board of Education. As the Civil Rights struggle moved from the law courts to the streets, she became less involved in the national movement. She focused instead on the legal cases of individuals caught up in injustice. In addition, she went to seminary and studied so that she could become a minister when the AME Church allowed women to hold that position. Roundtree firmly believed in justice and fair play and through her long life fought for those goals for herself and for others. Her autobiography is full of what she believed and how those beliefs translated into action. She tells a very personal story of what it was like to be in critical situations such as hearing cases before the Supreme Court. She lauds the individuals who were her mentors. But her first love was law, not romance, as her book reflects.Katie McCabe, a white Washington, D.C. journalist, is the co-author of this book. She is a nationally-recognized non-fiction writer, known for writing about little-known individuals, many of them blacks. She initially contacted Roundtree for an article twelve years before her death at 104. The two became good friends and worked together to write Mighty Justice. Their book is not your average as-told-to production. The two women were able to blend their talents into a meaningful whole. Roundtree is always front and center with her own particular language and experiences, and McCabe is behind the scenes organizing and making the project into a compelling story. It first appeared as a memoir entitled Justice Older Than the Law, in 2009. The Association of Black Women Historians has awarded the book its prize for the best book on an African American woman
For a time in the 1940s and 1950s, Roundtree played a key role in the national legal struggle for Civil Rights. Anyone interested in that struggle will need to read this book. For the rest of us, Mighty Justice is simply a fascinating account of a black woman whose life made an important difference in our nation’s history and whose life contributes to our understanding of the variety of significant women. I recommend it strongly.
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LibraryThing member cmbohn
I enjoyed this book from a woman's perspective about the Civil Rights era. It was a great read for Women's History Month. Her time in the Army during World War II was my favorite part, although her relationship with her family was really touching. The writing was a little dense though and I got
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review
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bogged down in places. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review
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Language
Original language
English
Physical description
304 p.; 6 inches
ISBN
1616209550 / 9781616209551
Local notes
autobiography