Up Home

One Girl's Journey

By: Ruth J. Simmons

Narrated by: Ruth J. Simmons

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Simmons’s evocative account of her remarkable trajectory from Jim Crow Texas, where she was the youngest of twelve children in a sharecropping family, to the presidencies of Smith College and Brown University shines with tenderness and dignity.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“A riveting work of literature, destined to take its place in the canon of great African American autobiographies.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Bloomberg, BET

I was born at a crossroads: a crossroads in history, a crossroads in culture, and a geographical crossroad in North Houston County in East Texas.

Born in 1945, Ruth J. Simmons grew up the twelfth child of sharecroppers. Her first home had no running water, no electricity, no books to read. Yet despite this—or, in her words, because of it—Simmons would become the first Black president of an Ivy League university. The former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M, Texas’s oldest HBCU, Simmons has inspired generations of students as she herself made history.

In Up Home, Simmons takes us back to Grapeland to show how the people who love us when we are young shape who we become. We meet her caring, tireless mother who managed to feed her large family with an often empty pantry; her father, who refused to let racial and economic injustice crush his youngest daughter’s dreams; the doting brothers and sisters; and the attentive teachers who welcomed Ruth into the classroom, guiding her to a future she could hardly imagine as a child.

From the farmland of East Texas to Houston’s Fifth Ward to New Orleans at the dawn of the civil rights movement, Simmons depicts an era long gone but whose legacies of inequality we still live with today. Written in clear and timeless prose, Up Home is both an origin story set in the segregated South and the uplifting chronicle of a girl whose intellect, grace, and curiosity guide her as she creates a place for herself in the world.

Positive and negative experiences travel together.

Volumes of thoughtful knowledge is condense in this timely, relatively small book. I recommend this book to all who seek direction in their own lives,
and who influence the direction and the lives of others. J. Ncutt.

A must read

A remarkable story about succeeding despite the odds. Nice that it was read by the author.

Inspiring

I was really inspired by how Ruth’s curiosity piqued with great mentors led to her continued success in life. Even more, her desire to be like others eventually led to her finding herself which is something I wouldn’t have originally thought..but it makes sense- the impact of others molds our identity .

Overall, Ruth’s story is that of not letting one’s self be defined by stereotypes but how they want to be defined. And, it really does take a village, no one person is self-made.

Beautiful Voice and Soul

Dr Simmons reads her own prose with elegance and verve.
Her history is full of love and striving. As a college administrator, I am hoping for part two!!

authenticity, amazing life story, appreciated Ruth sharing her story!

appreciated Ruth's reading of her life story. many thanks!!! With an education and love she was able to achieve her dreams.