We’re excited to share the news that we’ve acquired world rights to Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights, the memoir by civil rights lawyer Dovey Johnson Roundtree, and will publish this 10th Anniversary Edition in November 2019. The memoir recounts the trailblazing life of Roundtree, the African-American civil rights activist who died in 2018. Her groundbreaking 1955 bus desegregation case helped dismantle the practice of “separate but equal.”

Not only was Roundtree one of the first women commissioned as an Army officer in WWII, she was later ordained as one of the first female ministers in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. When the book was originally published by the University Press of Mississippi (with the title Justice Older than the Law), Michelle Obama wrote of Roundtree, “She has clearly demonstrated that even in the face of enormous challenges, an unblinking belief in equality and justice will spur real change.”

“Dovey’s inspiring life of firsts—in the law, the military, and the ministry—is not as well known as it should be. We could not be more proud and excited to introduce her story to a wider reading audience. The timing could not be more urgent,” said Amy Gash, Algonquin executive editor.

Co-author Katie McCabe says, “When you work for two decades to help bring a person’s life story to the world, you want to make sure it has the best possible home. Algonquin has a reputation for taking the utmost care with their books, and I know they will insure that all of America hears the story of Dovey Roundtree’s fight for justice and freedom in impossible times and against impossible odds.”

Charlene Pritchett-Stevenson, goddaughter of Dovey Roundtree, says, “I am thrilled that Algonquin will publish Mighty Justice. The story of the justice warrior who transformed my life as my godmother, my teacher, my minister, and grandmother to my son, will now reach the wide audience it deserves.”

And there’s a movie in the works from Red Crown Productions with Octavia Spencer as executive producer and Donna Gigliotti (Hidden Figures, Silver Linings Playbook, The Reader) as producer. Roaring Brook Press has also acquired rights to publish middle-grade and picture book adaptations.