Up Home: One Girl's Journey

Up Home: One Girl's Journey is an inspiring autobiography by Ruth J. Simmons. This hardcover book has 224 pages and is multicolored. It is set to be released on 05-09-2023.

The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) praised the book, saying “Simmons’s evocative account of her remarkable trajectory from Jim Crow Texas, where she was the youngest of twelve children in a sharecropping family, to the presidencies of Smith College and Brown University shines with tenderness and dignity.” Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University, also praised the book, calling it “a riveting work of literature, destined to take its place in the canon of great African American autobiographies.”

Up Home takes readers back to Grapeland, Texas, where Simmons was born in 1945. She was the twelfth child of sharecroppers and her first home had no running water, no electricity, and no books to read. Despite this, Simmons would become the first Black president of an Ivy League university. The book follows her journey from the segregated South to Houston’s Fifth Ward to New Orleans at the dawn of the civil rights movement. It is a story of resilience, determination, and courage, and a testament to the power of education.

Up Home: One Girl's Journey is a must-read for anyone looking for an inspiring story of overcoming adversity. With its timeless prose and vivid depictions of the era, this book is sure to become a classic.