William Heath

The Children Bob Moses Led

William Heath

Winner of the Hackney Literary Award and selected in 2002 by Time as one of the eleven best novels on the African American experience, The Children Bob Moses Led is a compelling, powerful chronicle of the events of Freedom Summer. The novel is narrated in alternating sections by Tom Morton, a white college student who joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for the summer, and Bob Moses, the charismatic leader of the Mississippi Summer Project. With clarity and honesty, Heath’s novel recalls the bittersweet spirit of the 1960s and conveys the hopeful idealism of the young students as they begin to understand both the harsh reality faced by those they try to help and the enormity of the oppression they must overcome.