Betty Before X

When Betty Dean Sanders was a baby, her aunt took her in from a teenage mother who wasn't ready to be a mother.  A few short years later, her aunt died and Betty was once again in her mother's home--this time in Detroit instead of in the south. 

Betty and her mother never really found a way to get along.  Eleven-year-old Betty knows her mother loves her, but she can't help feeling she doesn't want her around. 

Betty finds comfort and friendship at church, and many important cultural and civil rights leaders of the day, like Thurgood Marshall and Paul Robeson, make appearances there. 

When a final confrontation brings things to a head, Betty runs away and is taken in by the Malloys, a childless couple from church.  Now she finally has acceptance and peace again.  Plus, Mrs. Malloy is deeply involved in the Housewives' League, a women's group dedicated to protesting businesses that won't hire African Americans.  This is how Betty gets her first taste of social activism.

This account of Betty Shabazz's middle school years is written by her daughter Ilysasah Shabazz.  It is an interesting look at its subject and the time period, but don't come looking for a plot because there isn't one.  I was a little surprised to come to the end, but I enjoyed the back matter which gives context for Betty Shabazz's role in the civil rights movement.