Thank you for purchasing Mary’s Story & Song by Mary Haralson Coleman with Starkishia.

Mary was born in 1933 in Scott, County Mississippi to sharecroppers. Her memoir described her two fathers as the most significant people in her childhood. One of them was impoverished and indebted to white landowners, and the other owned property and was independent. They agreed to expose Mary to both worlds. Change is hard, but Mary found her way, and the inspiration to dream. With the gift of song and the mind to step out of the box, Mary broke ground in business and in song.

EXCERPT: At age six, I, along with my siblings attended a one room school, where … Mr. McCarter taught first through eighth grade. We carried our lunch to school in small molasses buckets which consisted of whatever we had left over from the previous day. We did not eat sandwiches like children do today; we ate peas, greens, salt meat and cornbread. Sometimes we had a baked sweet potato for dessert.

Advance Praise for Mary’s Story & Song 

Mrs. Coleman has written a book that everyone should read. We were both born in 1933 and lived in Mississippi during the years of the Black Civil Rights Movement. Her life is a living reality of the Black struggle and a greater true picture of the changes that occurred. I loved it.

James Meredith, Ole Miss, 1962

While this book is a personal account of the life of Mary Coleman, it is one with which we can all identify and cherish. I am sure that this historical account of her life will be something that generations coming after her will be able to use to get an understanding of from whence they came.

Judge William Walker

Mary’s Story and Song chronicles the great strides and struggles in the transformative life of the Haralson Family from slavery to freedom! Mrs. Coleman’s soft-spoken style and positive outlook is evident throughout this book and makes for a spirited autobiography that reads like a novel. It will serve as Mrs. Coleman’s testimony for many generations to come.

Norma G. Alexander