They Walked 1,500 Miles for a Life of Freedom. Revisiting a Book That Chronicles Young American Immigrants.

Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Tomorrow marks the third anniversary of a book’s publication that became a major milestone in the chronicling of immigrants’ rights in the United States, and it’s a gripping narrative read with enduring lessons for the Biden era. The Making of a Dream pairs hopeful stories of young undocumented immigrants with historical research that frames immigration as what it increasingly is: one of the paramount movements of civil rights in this country.
The themes resonate across administrations, from deportation to family separation, DACA, the DREAM Act’s many iterations, and the resilience of those who mobilize to resist. It’s told through the experiences of five immigrants and written by Laura Wides-Muñoz, the former AP immigration reporter who is now an executive editor for news practices at ABC News. It became a PEN Award semifinalist and Library Journal Book of the Year, inspired in part by the commencement of a march to Washington from Miami that reinvigorated the movement. Find a copy here.
Double celebration to start the weekend: Tomorrow is also the 75th birthday of Bettye LaVette, the Detroit singer whose life and lyrics are another portrait of American freedom. Happy birthday to LaVette. Brace, if you can, for her historic live performance of “Talking Old Soldiers.”

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