My Mantelpiece: A Memoir of Survival and Social Justice

Carolyn Goodman's life was punctuated by tragedy, including a brother's premature death, childhood molestation, a father's suicide, and a son's infamous murder. But hers is foremost a tale of survival, of turning personal anguish into social conscience. When her twenty-year-old son, Andy, was one of three civil rights volunteers to disappear in Mississippi in the summer of 1964, the story galvanized the nation. A half century after the Mississippi murders, this is the first time that a victims family member has expounded about the experience and the myriad emotions from guilt to resolve that it spawned. More than simply a memoir, My Mantelpiece is the story of a century's seminal progressive movements seen through the lens of a remarkable woman's singular journey. **Along with a foreword by National Book Award-winner Maya Angelou, MY MANTELPIECE includes back-cover testimonials from Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congressman John Lewis, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and performer-activist Harry Belafonte.