The Children Bob Moses Led is an alarming book. It
seems that while the ideals of the Freedom Summer are remembered, what is forgotten (and
what Heath endeavors to remind us of) is the struggle and the anguish that many people
endured. William Heath portrays Bob Moses as a leader in the fight for racial equality; a
man who struggled against the vituperative racism that infested the South three decades
ago. Heath uses the device of the novel to communicate the story from two narrative angles
(Moses, a black man. Tom Morten, a white man from the North.) Heath blends the truth of
the spirit of the movement: Moses’s intentions and the times as they were in the
Mississippi. The Children Bob Moses Led goes beyond the veneer of the
headlines and the news stories to uncover and make sense of what really happened. What is
most important about this book, is that it compels the reader to the knowledge of the
Freedom Summer. This book should alarm anyone who reads it because it is a part of our
country’s history.
Further, we learn from Heath’s book that it is with a mix of intellect, force and
unbreakable courage that the adequately monikered Bob Moses performed his work. William
Heath’s book is one that needs to be read… not for its intelligent
craftsmanship, but because it is a book that is endowed very much with the spirit of
humanity.
—J.M. Spalding
