Description

A child of the Black Panther movement informs her amazing life-story to be lifted amid abuse and near-poverty, used as an adolescent by Jane Fonda, and finding her long ago home.   As she spent my youth in 1970s Oakland, California, role-models for Mary Williams were few and far between: her dad was frequently in jail, her older cousin was a teen-age hooker, and her hot tempered mother fought to boost six kids alone. When Mary was thirteen, a silver coating appeared in her life: she was asked to invest a summer at Laurel Springs Children’s Camping, run by Jane Fonda and her then-husband, Tom Hayden. Jane prospered at camping, and within the span of many summers, she started confiding in Fonda about her issues at home.