GLORIA. I RASISMENS SKUGGA – GLORIA. IN THE SHADOW OF OPPRESSION
By Elisabeth Åsbrink
AWARD-WINNING ELISABETH ÅSBRINK writes the biography of Gloria Ray Karlmark, one of the Little Rock Nine.
GLORIA RAY WAS 14 years old when she was stopped by armed white soldiers from entering Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. The year was 1957 and the governor of Arkansas refused to allow her and eight other Black teenagers to enter the all-white school. ‘That day my childhood ended,’ Gloria says today.
GLORIA RAY AND the others in the Little Rock Nine were the first to act on the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ruled the segregation of Black and white children in American schools unconstitutional. Arkansas’ resistance to the decision was so strong and violent that President Dwight Eisenhower was forced to deploy elite armed troops to escort the nine Black children to school every day.
THE INCIDENT BECAME world news and a pawn in the Cold War, as well as a shocking exposure of racism in America. The Little Rock Nine are now icons in the history of the American civil rights movement.
BUT THE PRICE was high. They endured harassment, death threats and violence, and their parents and siblings suffered greatly, as did those who supported their fight for justice. In the end, the governor of Arkansas closed all public schools instead of allowing African-American children to mix with whites, and thousands of young people were affected by the decision.
GLORIA IS THE story of that year that would change her life, but also of the American racism and slavery it grew out of, inextricably linked in the story of the United States. Elisabeth Åsbrink with her eloquent narration, distinct voice, and unique ability to crack open key moments of conflict, oppression, and inequality by weaving together strands of personal and national history.
ABOUT THE BOOK
To be published by Polaris, Fall 2024
RIGHTS SOLD
Denmark, Gutkind
Sweden, Polaris
World English, Scribe Publications
REVIEWS
Åsbrink brings this story to life as she, for the reader, paints these scenes with incredible presence and essayistic sensitivity, thus conveying both astonishment and despair at these incredible events.
– BTJ, Sweden
In 1957, Gloria Ray was one of the ‘Little Rock Nine’, nine Black American high school students who made the almost unimaginably daring decision to attend the racially segregated Central High School in the US state capital of Arkansas. […]
Reading the book, it is hard to comprehend that the ‘nine’ voluntarily exposed themselves to the purgatory of studying at Central High. There are numerous examples of how teachers, students and ordinary residents of Little Rock took the liberty of to act in the most vile ways possible against Gloria, with no repercussions other than the occasional reprimand or a few days’ suspension. Gloria received death threats and risked her life daily […].
Gloria. In the Shadow of Oppression is a deeply personal story in more ways than one, created as a parallel narrative in which the two co-authors take turns to give an account of the past. Elisabeth Åsbrink often returns to her own family history, with its all too many examples of contemporary European tragedies. The Holocaust hangs as heavy a shadow over the book as American racism, and Åsbrink gives explicit examples of how the Nazis were inspired by the South. All in all, the book is thus a hard-to-forget illustration of the worst night sides of the 20th century, and is also exemplarily well-written.
– SVD, Sweden
BOOKS
Non-Fiction
