Louise Thompson Patterson

<div>Born in 1901 Louise Thompson Patterson was a leading and transformative figure in radical African American politics. Throughout most of the twentieth century she embodied a dedicated resistance to racial economic and gender exploitation. In this the first biography of Patterson Keith Gilyard tells her compelling story from her childhood on the West Coast where she suffered isolation and persecution to her participation in the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. In the 1930s and 1940s she became central along with Paul Robeson to the labor movement and later in the 1950s she steered proto-black-feminist activities. Patterson was also crucial to the efforts in the 1970s to free political prisoners most notably Angela Davis. In the 1980s and 1990s she continued to work as a progressive activist and public intellectual. To read her story is to witness the courage sacrifice vision and discipline of someone who spent decades working to achieve justice and liberation for all.</div>