My Mother Had a Dream: 8African-American Women Share Their Mothers' Words of Wisdom

My Mother Had a Dream is a cornucopia of well-honed words from the mothers of such diverse women as Marian Wright Edelman, Jamaica Kinkaid, Gladys Knight, and Angela Davis. Whether telling a daughter to buck up, leap ahead, forget that man, squelch racism, or raise her children right, each mother immortalized part of herself. "I still hear you humming, Mama," says writer Sonia Sanchez. "The color of your song calls me home. The color of your words saying, 'Let her be. She got a right to be different. She gonna stumble on herself one of these days. Just let the child be.' And I be, Mama."