I Shared the Dream

In this landmark autobiography by one of the very few women treated as a peer by the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, former Kentucky State Senator Georgia Davis Powers breaks her long silence to reveal her fascinating life story, including her often-hinted-about relationship with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.A veteran of the Selma and Frankfort marches, she reveals new insights not only on King, but also on Jesse Jackson, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Vernon Jordan, Benjamin Hooks and others. She also casts new light, from the feminine perspective, on the influence of the Baptist Ministry and the role of women in the Civil Rights Movement.Named «one of the black women who changed America» and «one of the fifty who made Kentucky,» she recounts her extraordinary journey from the two-room cabin where she was born the niece of a Wilson County slave, to the Senate floor where she introduced and championed such bills as the first Open Housing Law in Kentucky, displaced homemaker legislation and prohibition of employment discrimination. She also details the call from King on his way to Memphis — «Senator, I need you, please come» — and her memories of the tragedy at the Lorraine Hotel.I Shared the Dream is an important book with a compelling new vision of a major period in history and the remarkable woman who was part of it.