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Title details for From the Hood to the Holler by Charles Booker - Available

From the Hood to the Holler

A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for America's Future

by Charles Booker
Charles Booker
Audiobook
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Kentucky State Representative Charles Booker tells the improbable story of his journey from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country to a political career forging new alliances among forgotten communities across the New South and beyond.
“Charles Booker is a rising leader in our nation, and an inspiration to me and all those who get to know his story and vision.”—Senator Cory Booker
Charles Booker grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kentucky, living in the largely segregated West End of Louisville. Faith and love were everything in his family, but material comforts were scarce. The electricity was sometimes shut off. His mother often went hungry so her son could eat. Even after he graduated from law school, Booker rationed the insulin he took for diabetes. Determined to build a world in which poverty and racism would not plague future generations, he charted his own course into Kentucky politics, a world dominated by the myth of an urban-rural divide, and controlled by the formidable Republican establishment.
In this stirring account, Booker unfolds his journey from the heart of Louisville to the deepest reaches of Kentucky’s rural landscapes, reflecting the journey America itself must make on the way to a progressive future. Robbed of multiple family members by gun violence, Booker found the roots of a system built to fail him and his neighbors in everything from the hypocrisy of elected officials to the structural racism embedded in the state’s budget.
Yet it wasn’t until his unlikely appointment to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources that he understood the transformative power of the issues that bound his family with those in rural Appalachia. In coal country, he met citizens who, like those in the West End, suffered from extreme isolation, for whom fresh food and economic stability were scarce, who lacked the resources to overcome their cynicism about change. Through his work as the youngest Black state legislator in Kentucky, Booker built an unprecedented alliance between the hood and the holler. This coalition was the basis for a thrilling grassroots Senate campaign that nearly stunned the nation, putting Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul on notice that the days of business as usual were over.
From the Hood to the Holler is both a moving coming-of-age story and an urgent political intervention—a much-needed blueprint for how equity and racial justice might transcend partisan divisions in Kentucky, throughout the South, and across America.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 26, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593506189
      • File size: 384691 KB
      • Duration: 13:21:26

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 21, 2022
      In this earnest campaign memoir, U.S. Senate candidate Booker reflects on his youth in the West End of Louisville, Ky., and his political career. Though his mother sometimes had to forgo her own dinner in order to feed Booker and his cousin, he describes life in the West End as “a true testament to the power of family and the resilience of community.” After working in low-level government positions in Washington, D.C., and Kentucky, he became director of administrative services at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. There he learned that the people of Appalachia had similar problems—including food insecurity and drug addiction—as people from the West End and began to question his assumption that middle-aged white guys in “overalls and boots” with “a deep Kentucky twang” harbored racist views. Though he finished second in the 2020 Democratic primary, Booker vividly recounts how his campaign came to national attention and effectively excoriates Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell for failing to act against the opioid crisis and gun violence. Copious details about Booker’s early career slow the pace, but his optimism and broad-mindedness shine through, making it clear why Democrats are hopeful he can unseat Rand Paul in the 2022 midterms. Liberals will be inspired. Agent: Melissa Flashman, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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