Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South

Gr 9 Up–The author, publisher, and civil rights activist spent his formative years in Mansfield, Louisiana. Nicknamed Brother, Hudson was introduced to leadership at an early age as he began to organize baseball teams, plays, and other projects. The adults in his life saw this natural ability and began to encourage him to hone these skills. While his life was filled with family, faith, and love, Hudson was slowly becoming aware of the injustices inflicted on his community. He noticed the ways Jim Crow laws impacted the lives of his friends and family and wondered why. His desire for progress led him to create the civil rights organization S.O.U.L (Society for Opportunity, Unity, and Leadership). The organization and the police’s response to it would lead Hudson to a life of activism. This memoir offers a snapshot of a community enriched by love and chained by systemic racism.