Fire in My Soul

by Eleanor Holmes Norton, Joan Steinau Lester, Coretta Scott King (Foreword by)

Impassioned civil rights activist, champion of women's rights, hard-driving legislator -- U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is known in Washington as the "Warrior on the Hill." Fire in My Soul is the story of Norton's extraordinary political career, told from a personal perspective.
Author Joan Steinau Lester met Norton in 1958 while they were both students at Antioch College. Fire in My Soul charts their longstanding friendship and tells of Norton's rise to leadership -- from her early on-campus activism to demanding a Senate hearing for Anita Hill to standing before the Supreme Court to uphold first amendment rights. Filled with scores of Lester's conversations and correspondence with Norton, interviews with Norton's colleagues and confidantes, and dozens of original photographs, Fire in My Soul is a compelling biography of one of the greatest political pioneers in American history.

Genres: Biography, Feminism, School, Race, Nonfiction, History, Politics

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Bruce Majors · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting tidbit early on is that one of EHN's forefathers was a slave who walked away from his servitude and posed as a free person of color in DC and became a day laborer.

He was a very hard-working employee and when some enforcer who collected escaped slaves and returned them to their "owners" showed up, his new boss supported his claim that he was not the man they were looking for.

Capitalism freed him.

[Aaron Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave heard about Eleanor Holmes Norton. This book sheds a good light about this women. Thus was a good book.

[Audrey Babkirk Wellons]

OK, so I knew I was a little obsessed with E.H.N. when I asked Rich for a tee shirt with her face and the words "I will NOT yield!" (A quote from the DC voting rights debates). Wondering if this bio will live up to the woman herself.