Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering

by Rachel E. Harding, Rosemarie Freeney Harding

An activist influential in the civil rights movement, Rosemarie Freeney Harding’s spirituality blended many traditions, including southern African American mysticism, Anabaptist Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, and Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. Remnants, a multigenre memoir, demonstrates how Freeney Harding's spiritual life and social justice activism were integral to the instincts of mothering, healing, and community-building. Following Freeney Harding’s death in 2004, her daughter Rachel finished this decade-long collaboration, using recorded interviews, memories of her mother, and her mother's journal entries, fiction, and previously published essays.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Biography, Religion, Social Justice, African American

328 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2015

About the author

Rachel Elizabeth Harding is a native of Georgia, a writer, historian and a poet. Rachel is a specialist in religions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora and studies the relationship between religion, creativity and social justice activism in cross-cultural perspective. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and has an MFA in creative writing from Brown University and a PhD in history from the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Harding is author of A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness, as well as numerous poems and essays. Rachel's second book, Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism and Mothering, combines her own writings with those of her mother, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, on the role of compassion and spirituality in social justice organizing. Remnants is published by Duke University Press.

Reviews

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most beautifully written books by I’ve ever read. Rosemarie Freeney Harding writes so intimately, I feel as if I knew her personally. She was a graceful soul, a wise mystic. In her memoir “Remnants A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering” written with her daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, she weaves her family and ancestors’ stories together with accounts from her days as an activist in the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia in the 1960s, and her experiences later in life. She continued as an activist, a teacher and a spiritual healer throughout her life. She maintained a deep faith and loving spirit even as she endured excruciating physical pain, and frustrating emotional pain. Her life stories are connected by stories of the spirituality of the women in her life, her great grandmother who had been a slave, and her mother who passed on her mysticism to Rosemarie. Rachel’s lyrical writing about her mother is very moving. This is a new favorite book for me. It’s so powerful.

[Albert Hong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thoughts and experiences of a beautiful soul. In my search for POC-centered Christian spirituality, this is one of the few that is able to address both mysticism and race in a credible and profound way.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir, Remnants, is an incredible gift of love given by Rosemarie Freeney Harding. It is testament to the power found in cultivating compassion in the darkest of places. To loving freely and wholeheartedly in times of struggle. Remnants is a reminder that we are each connected, each deserving of healing, nourishment, and nurturing. That to show true kindness, you must look at both yourself and others through a mother's eyes.
As I finished Remnants, I realized it felt more like the conclusion of a conversation with the amazing woman that was Rosemarie Freeney Harding, than the end to a book. Her words, her lessons, and her love are strong and lasting. I am incredibly thankful to both Rosemarie and her daughter Rachel Elizabeth Harding for sharing their lives, families, and wisdom.

*I received this book from Goodreads First Reads*

[Renita Weems · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a scholar of religion I've heard lots about Vincent Harding, I was intrigued to know more about his wife Rosemarie Harding whom I gather from bit and pieces I've heard was a force in her right. That she was. And more. I was moved by this memoir written by mother and daughter of Rosemarie Harding's gifts as a seer and spirit woman and her contributions to the freedom movement. The book moved back and forth between memories making it difficult sometimes to follow and hinted at but remained vague about a few important things (like the Harding's marriages in the latter years). But oeverall I am glad I discovered this wonderful woman, learned our her journey, and am grateful for her contributions to improve the world.

[Analouise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely amazing. It opens new dimensions of womanism and reminds us of our radical interconnectedness. Beautifully written and profound. I loved it.

[Diana Raphael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was truly magnificent. The only reason I gave it a four stars and not five was the way it was pieced together making this reader confused at times about who was telling which pieces when. In fact it was remnants of the life of a truly remarkable woman and her ancestors who was able to see the importance of love in the darkest places of not only history but the present. Teaching us how to love our oppressors and understand our own selves in them. This book is about allowing the transformation suffering into something truly beautiful and rich through the practice of gratitude.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in one of the giveaways and found it to be an interesting read. What an incredible life Rosemarie Freeney Harding had going through the turbulent years of racism and still being strong willed in her beliefs and how she generally lived her life. Rachel's research and desire to finish this book can be commended. Full of so much knowledge and research I would recommend this. Thank you

[Mallory Everhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is NOT a how-to guide. It IS a sacred text. It's born out of deep practice, abiding faith, incredible openness, and extraordinary experience. It points the way and reminds us of what we know to be true on a fundamental level. A beautiful experience of a read.

[Elizabeth Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a loose collection of anecdotes, stories, family histories, testimonials, and historical records of two women's remarkable lives of faith and activism.

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays and poems and musings is incredible. A poetic journey through “the Movement” for civil rights in the U.S. that focuses on love as radical act, mothering as spiritual, and mysticism as a deeply rooted Black tradition. I learned so very much from combing through this one.

It’s also a “who’s who’s” of American civil rights legends, matched with the core belief throughout that no one is better (or worse) than anyone else.

[Emma Colón]

Just divine.

[Margaret R · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty amazing book. It might have benefited from more editing. The chapters were a little uneven.
I am quoting often the intro - There is no scarcity. There is no shortage.
I loved reading about the time of the Civil Rights movement. Also about Woodlawn in Chicago and what a comfortable place it was until all the whites moved out.