Most people have heard of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on the bus, and listened to Martin Luther King Jr. inspire the masses with his declaration of "I have a dream." But pivotal as those moments were, they could not begin to reflect the horror of life in the segregated south for black Americans. They fail to capture the hostility, the intimidation, the ever-present dangers felt by so many during the 1950s and '60s; these same struggles led a group of brave individuals to fight for racial equality in the United States in the upcoming years.

One such civil rights soldier was Nell Braxton Gibson, the eldest daughter of a pair of African-American educators in the Jim Crow-era south. In Too Proud to Bend, Gibson provides a valuable glimpse into her life as a young black girl during this tumultuous era in history-and the pain, disappointment, and loss that paved the way to the dawning of the civil rights movement. Part candid memoir and part informative account, Too Proud to Bend strikes a balance of captivating storytelling and historical accuracy that will appeal to fans of Maya Angelou and Anne Moody alike.