In this loving remembrance of her mother, Carrie Allen McCray portrays the life of a woman who worked to beat down the barriers to equality. Born eleven years after the end of the Civil War, the daughter of a white Confederate general and his black servant, Mary Rice Hayes Allen was publicly recognized by her father. After she graduated from college she embarked on a career as a civil rights activist. From befriending her hostile white neighbors to starting local chapters of the NAACP, from desegregating movie theaters to writing personal letters to President Harding, Mary was determined to do what she could to improve the lives of African Americans. But the greatest challenge she faced was learning to accept her own father. Carrie Allen McCray's memories of her remarkable mother reward us with an intimate portrait of a woman who overcame a legacy of scandal to pass on a legacy of personal courage, conviction, love, and joy. . --McCray's gentle, loving memoir of her remarkable mother "is a vivid picture of the joys and struggles of black life, in both South and North, between Reconstruction and the Depression." --The Virginian Pilot. --"An invaluable work. McCray ... is one of the last links we have to the generation who actually knew individuals born into slavery. We are fortunate that she chose to make sure that those times, and how we rose above them, are never forgotten." --The Washington Post Magazine