This book began with a few newspaper articles on the 1881 Atlanta washerwomen's strike. This one event engaged my interest enough to inspire a full-length study and taught me some fundamental lessons about how to research and write a history of black women. The strike piqued my curiosity because it challenged conventional wisdom about the limited capacity of working-class women's protests. What I discovered about the strikers and the astute political strategies they adopted to make their voices heard left me eager to know more about the women and their city. A central tension that would be clear in the bigger story I would eventually piece together was readily apparent in this early event. Here was a group of black women, a decade and a half removed from slavery, striving to achieve freedom, equality, and a living wage against tremendous odds.