Black Power Remakes the World

The Long Stay on Freedom of Zoharah and Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons, Zoharah Simmons and Aishah Simmons. Photo: Becca Haydu.

In 1965, two twenty-somethings, Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons, activists seasoned by Mississippi Freedom Summer and Arkansas Black sharecropper organizing, met, completely by chance, at the Atlanta office of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). So began almost 60 – and counting – years of their lives and work together in what was to become known as the Black Power movement. You’re reading about Michael and Zoharah now because Dan Berger, author, professor, and public scholar, has just published Stayed On Freedom: The Long History of Black People Through One Family’s Journey. I talked to Dan about his book, about how he came to write it …

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Susie Day has written about prison issues since 1988, when she began reporting on the cases of people charged with political protest acts, one of them, Marilyn Buck. Her book, The Brother You Choose: Paul Coates and Eddie Conway Talk About Life, Politics, and The Revolution, was published by Haymarket Books in 2020.

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