The Deeper the Roots
A Memoir of Hope and Home
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Insightful, emotional, and enraging. By sharing his story in gripping detail, Michael Tubbs embodies an old feminist tradition whereby the personal is political. He empowers us to fight for equal opportunities for our communities, and encourages us to amass the courage to overcome loss and injustice.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from
the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist
The making of a visionary political leader—and a blueprint for a more equitable country
“Don’t tell nobody our business,” Michael Tubbs’s mother often told him growing up. For Michael, that meant a lot of things: don’t tell anyone about the day-to-day struggle of being Black and broke in Stockton, CA. Don’t tell anyone the pain of having a father incarcerated for 25 years to life. Don’t tell anyone about living two lives, the brainy bookworm and the kid with the newest Jordans. And also don’t tell anyone about the particular joys of growing up with three “moms”—a Nana who never let him miss church, an Auntie who’d take him to the library any time, and a mother, “She-Daddy”, who schooled him in the wisdom of hip-hop and taught him never to take no for an answer.
So for a long time Michael didn’t tell anyone his story, but as he went on to a scholarship at Stanford and an internship in the Obama White House, he began to realize the power of his experience, the need for his perspective in the halls of power. By the time he returned to Stockton to become, in 2016 at age 26, its first Black mayor and the youngest-ever mayor of a major American city, he knew his story meant something.
The Deeper the Roots is a memoir astonishing in its candor, voice, and clarity of vision. Tubbs shares with us the city that raised him, his family of badass women, his life-changing encounters with Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, the challenges of governing in the 21st century and everything in between—en route to unveiling his compelling vision for America rooted in his experiences in his hometown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tubbs recounts how he fought "against the soft bigotry of low expectations" to become the first Black mayor of Stockton, Calif., in his clear-eyed debut. Within this personal story is a love letter to his hometown of Stockton and to the strong women in his family that raised him, while his father was in prison, to believe that "things that were tough about our lives were reasons... to prove Them wrong." Throughout, Tubbs's outsize natural charisma, generosity, and academic prowess mark each story, including one about winning a high-school essay contest hosted by Alice Walker, who taught him that "life is not a sob story, but a survivor's tale." Even as he attended Stanford University and interned at the White House, he returned home often to assist other students burdened by poverty. In 2016, after serving for four years on Stockton's city council, he was elected mayor at age 26. Beyond being overwhelmingly inspiring, Tubbs's story is written with a deep sincerity, especially when recalling more painful moments, such as his 2014 arrest for a DUI, which "fulfill the grim prophecy... that I would end up arrested and in jail one day." This is an inspiring look at what it means to serve a community from a young political mind on the rise.