Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement (Amistad, 2024 )
Tanisha C. Ford (Photo: Darcy Rogers)
Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement
Amistad, 2024
About the book
Our Secret Society illuminates an aspect of the civil rights struggle that is often overlooked: the powerhouse fundraising effort that supported the movement. No one knew this world better or ruled over it with more authority than the formidable Mollie Moon, the stylish founder of the National Urban League Guild, who helped raise millions to fund grassroots activists battling for economic justice and racial equality. Born in Jim Crow Mississippi, Moon became one of the most influential philanthropists of her time.
This event is presented in partnership with the Delaware Historical Society and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).
About the author
Tanisha C. Ford is a cultural critic and professor of history at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She has written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, Time, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and other publications. Our Secret Society won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Biography/Autobiography.
Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.
About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2024 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. Our Keynote event is presented by Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman, and our Closing event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex and Kent Counties. Saturday’s Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.
Special thanks to our Founding Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library, for event promotion and production, and Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Thanks also to: the Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.
Additional thanks to our community partners: CAMP Rehoboth, Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, Historic Lewes Farmers Market, Lewes Historical Society, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach Film Society, Seaside Jewish Community, and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).