The CNN analyst and youngest state representative in South Carolina's history explores his upbringing in the Deep South and the lives of America's forgotten rural, Black working-class men and women.
Sellers’ story is remarkable ... Sellers beautifully evokes the South Carolina low country, the haunted landscape of his childhood, to explain how its backbreaking poverty and history of relentless racism molded him ... The fact that many people have not heard of the Orangeburg Massacre is in itself an excellent reason to read My Vanishing Country. Sellers meticulously recounts how and why eight South Carolina highway patrol officers fired upon a crowd of black student protesters at South Carolina State University, killing three students and wounding 27 others ... My Vanishing Country is more than a memoir. It’s a loving celebration of a father’s gift of fortitude and determination to his son.
To his credit, Sellers exposes his own flaws in this book; mistakes he’s not proud of. This solidly written memoir is an important addition to contemporary politics shelves.
In a candid and affecting memoir, CNN political analyst Sellers, the youngest member of the South Carolina Legislature when he was elected in 2006, chronicles his evolution as a political activist ... He is forthright, as well, about suffering from anxiety, which he attributes to the fear, rage, and anger that result from continued racial oppression ... A strong voice for social justice emerges in an engaging memoir.
