Until I Am Free fits nicely in Blain’s larger catalogue that highlights the efforts of Black women challenging racism and sexism at the roots. This includes Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom as well as countless articles capturing the fierceness of unrecognized figures. Blain recently edited Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 (2021), where she continued in her noble mission to hold Black women history-makers aloft. A major strength of Until I Am Free is the length is perfect for readers of all levels. It is especially right for young people who are currently in the movement. Although Blain has focused on an individual freedom fighter, the book is just as much about the power of organizing. SNCC introduced Hamer to the concept of voting, and yet SNCC had not sought the permission of any established civil rights leaders to create a base of operations in the South. The young college students and activists, knowing the difference between right and wrong, pressed the action and changed the nation from the bottom up. The methods SNCC adopted and its approach to leadership greatly appealed to Hamer. Participatory democracy and their insistence on living, eating, suffering, and celebrating with the people to empower them to act on their own behalf attracted Hamer who had always used community to survive in the rural South.
With this new and welcomed scholarly treatment of Hamer, Blain shows that the Mississippi mother of the movement was the embodiment of the organizing method that Ella Baker envisioned. Early in the text, Blain emphasizes the fact that Hamer, like Baker, respected the male ministers who led recognizable organizations but did not find it prudent or practical to rely on one figure to lead movements. Hamer carried forward the torch of justice that Baker lit. If freedom was to be had in Mississippi, it would not be because of one messianic figure but rather the organizing efforts of the people, according to Hamer. She rejected the notion that outside leadership “who don’t know nothing about the problems” and only been around for a few weeks could save her. “They not leading us. And that’s the truth,” Hamer exclaimed (46). That is instructive. Blain uses Hamer’s work and words to illustrate possibilities for today’s activists for Black Lives. With her courage to act and insistence on grassroots activism, Blain argues that Hamer is the model for progressive leadership. Blain’s new book is in the same vein as that of eminent scholar Barbara Ransby, who revitalized the memory of SNCC progenitor Ella Baker with the essential volume, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Vision (2005).