Norman Hill was the national program director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), staff coordinator for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, staff representative of the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO, and president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute from 1980 to 2004, the longest tenure in the organization’s history. He remains its president emeritus.Velma Murphy Hill, a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, was a leader of the Chicago Wade-In to integrate Rainbow Beach, East Coast field secretary for CORE, and assistant to the president of the United Federation of Teachers, where she unionized 10,000 paraprofessionals, mostly Black and Hispanic, working in New York public schools. She was vice president of the American Federation of Teachers and International Affairs and civil rights director of the Service Employees International Union. The Hills were the only Black couple to hold leadership positions in the civil rights and labor movements.

“Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain is the powerful memoir of Norman and Velma Murphy Hill, two lifelong warriors in the struggles for racial equality, economic justice, and democracy. The Hills bring to their story the unique perspective of participants in the making of our nation’s history—from the direct action campaign to integrate Chicago’s Rainbow Beach, the Route 40 freedom riders, and the 1963 March on Washington to the 1968 strike of Memphis sanitation workers in which Martin Luther King would be assassinated and the successful drive to organize New York City’s paraprofessionals into the United Federation of Teachers. In the civil rights, labor, and democratic socialist movements, they labored shoulder-to-shoulder with King, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Al Shanker, and others, and their narrative brings these figures and their historic work to life. As new generations of activists in the freedom and labor movements take up the baton of these struggles today, the authoritative account of Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain provides an indispensable guide.”

Norman Hill was the national program director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), staff coordinator for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, staff representative of the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO, and president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute from 1980 to 2004, the longest tenure in the organization’s history. He remains its president emeritus.Velma Murphy Hill, a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, was a leader of the Chicago Wade-In to integrate Rainbow Beach, East Coast field secretary for CORE, and assistant to the president of the United Federation of Teachers, where she unionized 10,000 paraprofessionals, mostly Black and Hispanic, working in New York public schools. She was vice president of the American Federation of Teachers and International Affairs and civil rights director of the Service Employees International Union. The Hills were the only Black couple to hold leadership positions in the civil rights and labor movements.

“Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain is the powerful memoir of Norman and Velma Murphy Hill, two lifelong warriors in the struggles for racial equality, economic justice, and democracy. The Hills bring to their story the unique perspective of participants in the making of our nation’s history—from the direct action campaign to integrate Chicago’s Rainbow Beach, the Route 40 freedom riders, and the 1963 March on Washington to the 1968 strike of Memphis sanitation workers in which Martin Luther King would be assassinated and the successful drive to organize New York City’s paraprofessionals into the United Federation of Teachers. In the civil rights, labor, and democratic socialist movements, they labored shoulder-to-shoulder with King, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Al Shanker, and others, and their narrative brings these figures and their historic work to life. As new generations of activists in the freedom and labor movements take up the baton of these struggles today, the authoritative account of Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain provides an indispensable guide.”

Norman Hill was the national program director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), staff coordinator for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, staff representative of the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO, and president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute from 1980 to 2004, the longest tenure in the organization’s history. He remains its president emeritus.Velma Murphy Hill, a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, was a leader of the Chicago Wade-In to integrate Rainbow Beach, East Coast field secretary for CORE, and assistant to the president of the United Federation of Teachers, where she unionized 10,000 paraprofessionals, mostly Black and Hispanic, working in New York public schools. She was vice president of the American Federation of Teachers and International Affairs and civil rights director of the Service Employees International Union. The Hills were the only Black couple to hold leadership positions in the civil rights and labor movements.

“Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain is the powerful memoir of Norman and Velma Murphy Hill, two lifelong warriors in the struggles for racial equality, economic justice, and democracy. The Hills bring to their story the unique perspective of participants in the making of our nation’s history—from the direct action campaign to integrate Chicago’s Rainbow Beach, the Route 40 freedom riders, and the 1963 March on Washington to the 1968 strike of Memphis sanitation workers in which Martin Luther King would be assassinated and the successful drive to organize New York City’s paraprofessionals into the United Federation of Teachers. In the civil rights, labor, and democratic socialist movements, they labored shoulder-to-shoulder with King, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Al Shanker, and others, and their narrative brings these figures and their historic work to life. As new generations of activists in the freedom and labor movements take up the baton of these struggles today, the authoritative account of Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain provides an indispensable guide.”