"Skillfully demonstrates that women's kazi leadership was indispensable in the functioning and evolution of Kawaida-influenced organizations. By centering these essential soldiers' voices and memories, McCray enhances the scholarly analysis of women's key roles within black organizing efforts during the latter half of the twentieth century." - Edward Onaci, author of Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State "Hundreds of urban uprisings in the 1960s produced a surge of Black Power Politics; Black women were central actors in that epic drama. But who were they? Essential Soldiers is the most ambitious study of the Black women in Cultural Nationalism who built four major national organizations in the 1960s and 1970s: the Congress of African People, the National Black Political Assembly, the African Liberation Support Committee, and the Black Women's United Front. Before Kenja McCray's book, those pioneering women remained unnamed in the shadow of their own historic achievements, finally, this book tells their story." - Komozi Woodard, author of A Nation within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Black Power Politics "The role of women in the Pan-African nationalist movement of the 1960s and '70s has been mischaracterized and ignored [but] women were the backbone of these efforts... A fresh perspective on the role of women in the Black nationalist movement." (Kirkus Reviews)
