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| Thulani Davis, taken from UW website |
It starts with the black residents of the town trying to get the schools to integrate in accordance with the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which took place in 1954. There is much resistance on the part of the white residents and officials, but the idea takes root in the minds of the black people who then start to think perhaps they should try to win other freedoms such as being able to eat in a Woolworth's lunchroom, or even to register to vote.
The people and the students of a nearby black college stage a sit-in which then leads to a boycott of white businesses and buses, including picketing the stores. There is much resistance and ugly, violent retaliation by the white people, who include law enforcement and the KKK. But the black people are undaunted and though they are beaten up and jailed and blocked at every turn, they don't quit and feel a renewed sense of pride at finally standing up for themselves.
The narrator is a twelve year old girl, who tells it from a future time when the strife of those days is past. So it's a young girl's perspective, but with the wiser understanding of an adult.
But it's not exclusively told from the girl's POV. Some of the events are told from the POV of several adults in the community. At least one of those characters was around during Reconstruction and provides a historical perspective that informs the events of the present time of the story. I often felt that part of the purpose of the novel was to inform readers--black as well as white--of what that time was like for people who lived in a place that didn't get any publicity.
It's a very well written book and I highly recommend it. I may also check out some of the author's other works.
