These Walls Between Us - by Wendy Sanford (Paperback)

About the Book

In These Walls Between Us established feminist author Wendy Sanford, who is white, reflects on her complex lifelong friendship with Mary Norman, who is Black--exploring her formation in a narrow world of class and race privilege, lifting up the writings and social movements that changed her views and her life, and examining a sixty-year interracial friendship that evolved in the context of white supremacy.

Book Synopsis

In These Walls Between Us established feminist author Wendy Sanford, who is white, reflects on her complex lifelong friendship with Mary Norman, who is Black-exploring her formation in a narrow world of class and race privilege, lifting up the writings and social movements that changed her views and her life, and examining a sixty-year interracial friendship that evolved in the context of white supremacy.

Review Quotes

2022 Sarton Awards Finalist in Memoir
2022 Page Turner Awards Finalist

2022 16th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in Multicultural Non-Fiction

2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Memoirs (Other) and Social Justice

2022 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Book Awards Grand Prize Finalist
2022 Eric Hoffer Book Awards Honorable Mention in Memoir

2022 Nonfiction Authors Association Awards Gold Winner in Multicultural Nonfiction

2022 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner in Memoir/Large Publisher

2021 Best Book Awards Finalist in Multicultural: Nonfiction

A Notable 100 Book in the 2021 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition

2021 Hearten Book Awards Finalist

2021 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in Multicultural Non-Fiction

2021 Firebird Book Awards Second Place Winner in Memoir

"This tender and evocative story about friendship across racial and
class lines is told with unflagging honesty and is an important guide
for living in this time of racial reckoning."

-Catherine Whitmire, author of Practicing Peace: A Devotional Walk through the Quaker Tradition and Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity

"The politics are crystal clear at all levels, the characters are
fascinating and it's a superb read! Sanford presents the humanity of
the characters, in all their contradictoriness, while remaining
unrelenting in her condemnation of systemic racial and class violence.
White people are all complicit in racism, and all responsible for taking
it down, relationship by relationship. This memoir shows how tortuous
and slippery that is . . . and yet, between humans who will recognize
one another as such, always possible."

--James Seale-Collazo, Faculty, Escuela Secondaria, University of Puerto Rico

"This is powerful book with an important lesson that we all must learn
in trying to understand others--a book that both blacks and whites should
read so that we can enter into a productive dialogue with each other."

--Rev. John Reynolds, author of The Fight for Freedom

"A compelling take on how our personal experiences of racism arise from
the history and structures of white supremacy, and an emotional glimpse
into a lifetime anti-racism journey. Non-profit board members,
government leaders, and executives from all sectors will be transformed
by Wendy's journey and her painfully earned pearls of wisdom in her
effort to become an anti-racist white person."

--Sue Gallagher, EdD, Chief Innovation Officer, Children's Services Council of Broward County, FL

"I found These Walls Between Us very informative, especially the
way the author deconstructs the subtle and overt ways that white
privilege influences the lives of so many. White privilege is like an
invisible thread that maintains the status quo. Thank goodness Wendy
Sanford is doing the work that only she can do!"

--Byllye Avery, MacArthur Genius Grant Winner, Founder, Black Women's Health Imperative

"A repurposed white identity that separates itself from internalized
white supremacist ideology brings joy and satisfaction to human rights
work by embracing the power of hope and transformation. These Walls Between Us models such reclamation for everyone."

--Loretta J. Ross, founder of Dred Feminist, activist, visiting associate professor at Smith College, and author of Reproductive Justice: An Introduction

"Finally, a story from a white woman raised with 'help' who interrogates
the re