First Person Crazy

Book excerpt: Autobiographical work by and about Bob Darby, a lifelong human rights activist. Darby came of age as a privileged Caucasian in the segregated South during the civil rights conflict at home and during the Vietnam War. When Darby graduated from Emory University and enrolled at Harvard and Tufts, he found many who shared his dedication to the anti-war movement. Few of Darby�s friends realized that he was also fighting a very personal war. The sensitive and gifted young man�s manic depression sometimes led to wild exuberance and other times to suicidal attempts to end his own life. He became a man with empathy for downtrodden people through serving as a civil rights advocate, peace activist, and the founder of �Food Not Bombs� in Atlanta, Georgia. His writings make the reader feel the excitement and frustration of his adventures and passion for social justice and his quest for normalcy. Parts of these chapters also appear in his book �Betrayal and Conviction� published in February of 2019.