Up From Natchez is a memoir of growing up in Natchez, Mississippi, during the Jim Crow era, where Ann Green was raised amid tradition, privilege, and a clear set of expectations for the life she was supposed to lead.

With candor and conviction, Green reflects on the world that shaped her, the expectations she learned to question, and her determination to forge a path of her own. Woven throughout are memories of Aileen, the Black woman who worked in her family’s home and whose presence figures prominently in Green’s memories of childhood.