"Nellie Stone Johnson is the quintessential activist. For a lifetime she has battled to uphold three basic human rights: equal opportunities in education, the work force, and health care.".

"A "political animal," Nellie got her start at age thirteen distributing Non-Partisan League literature on horseback. A member of the only black family in a predominantly Scandinavian and Irish region of rural Minnesota, her politics were sculpted both by the African American newspapers that arrived at her doorstep in brown paper wrappings, and by the insatiable drive and steadfast values that she acquired on her family's farm.".

"In an unwavering voice Nellie offers a humanistic approach to a society wrought with injustice. She unleashes memories of both her fight for equal pay for women in the late 1930s, and her ground-breaking election as the first black woman appointed to office in Minneapolis."--BOOK JACKET.