Defiant

Wade Hudson is an author, a publisher, and the president and CEO of Just Us Books, Inc., an independent publisher of books for children and young adults. He has published over thirty books, including the anthologies We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, which received four starred reviews; The Talk, which earned four starred reviews and was a New York Times Best Book of the Year; and Recognize: Black Lives Matter. These powerful collections were co-edited with his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson.

Defiant is Wade’s homage to the Black people he knew in Mansfield as much as it is his story about growing up there. These were the people who nurtured and loved him even as they fought for their own survival under Jim Crow. It is also the story of a youngster trying to find meaning and purpose in a defining era where issues such as civil rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and resistance against the Vietnam War played out regularly on the news. It is about finding one’s voice and joining the fight for justice and equality.

Wade lives in East Orange, New Jersey, with his wife.