My Vanishing Country
By Bakari Sellers
- Release Date: 2020-05-19
- Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Description
New York Times Bestseller
What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the rural South, in this important book that illuminates the lives of America’s forgotten black working-class men and women.
Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past, present, and future.
Anchored in in Bakari Seller’s hometown of Denmark, South Carolina, Country illuminates the pride and pain that continues to fertilize the soil of one of the poorest states in the nation. He traces his father’s rise to become, friend of Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King, a civil rights hero, and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , to explore the plight of the South's dwindling rural, black working class—many of whom can trace their ancestry back for seven generations.
In his poetic personal history, we are awakened to the crisis affecting the other “Forgotten Men & Women,” who the media seldom acknowledges. For Sellers, these are his family members, neighbors, and friends. He humanizes the struggles that shape their lives: to gain access to healthcare as rural hospitals disappear; to make ends meet as the factories they have relied on shut down and move overseas; to hold on to precious traditions as their towns erode; to forge a path forward without succumbing to despair.
My Vanishing Country is also a love letter to fatherhood—to Sellers' father, his lodestar, whose life lessons have shaped him, and to his newborn twins, who he hopes will embrace the Sellers family name and honor its legacy.
Reviews
Enjoyed it!
5By Consta anceEnjoyed reading this book over the holiday.My Vanishing Country
4By Bethany PandaI like how he tied the past to the present, if you don’t know the past, you can’t change the future.Amazing book
5By JustoFromTheMoHonestly did not know who Bakari Sellers was before I read this book. I’ve learned so much about South Carolina and a deep dive into his life. This book was incredible and I would recommend this book to anyonePlease read!
5By grandma judesI loved this book. It was interesting, informative, heart-breaking and heart-warming. Bakari Sellers is a wonderful writer.Great read!
5By MariaTM24Baraki Sellers writes so wonderfully and simplicity, telling the story of life. He has such an old soul and deep feeling for people. I highly recommend reading this perspective from a modern black man on his views on race in today’s society.