Scan barcode
A review by sde
Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle by Kristen Green
3.0
This is a difficult book for me to rate because of my connections with the topic.
I bought the book at an independent bookstore in Richmond, and the bookseller raved about the book and author. I wish I had been able to hear the author speak. My husband's aunt worked at Longwood College for many years, almost definitely during the time of the closed schools, but I never heard her or the rest of the family ever speak of it. (Sadly, she is no longer here to ask.) My husband's older brothers were kids during the time of desegregation in another rural Virginia county. They have some memories of it, and my husband mentioned a small private school in their area as being a school that was opened to be all white, but, again, no real discussion of the issue. He and I vaguely knew about the school closings in Prince Edward County, but had no idea how long the schools were closed, and he grew up in the region. The question of why this story is not as well known as many other civil rights stories is addressed in the book, but not fully answered.
I am not sure if I liked or disliked the author's personal anecdotes interspersed throughout the book. In some ways it humanized the story, but sometimes it seemed to trivialize the stories of the characters, both black and white, who were affected by the closings. In the Q&A in the end of the book, the author says that the book is both a history book and a memoir, and I'm not sure if that works. Maybe a book with an accompanying personal essay at the end would have been more effective.
The section of the white churches blocking the black students from entering was heartbreaking. You expect this of schools and businesses, but the fact that it happened in a house of G-d was horrible. Not surprising, I suppose, given what we know of people's feelings at the time, but given that churches are now often at the center of healing racial discourse, it was eye opening. What are our churches doing today in the name of G-d that will seem horribly hypocritical in years to come?
The part that was most eye-opening to me was what happened to white people who opposed closing the schools, worked in the public schools after they reopened, or who sent their kids to the public schools when they first reopened. They were not just shunned. They received death threats, their kids were harassed by adults, and they were at severe risk at losing businesses unless they had a lot of black customers. I don't know if I could have spoken up on behalf of integration if my kid was getting threats of violence as a result, and I have more respect now for people who spoke out even a little bit.
I work with schools both urban and rural, mostly white and mostly black, and I am skeptical that closing the private school in town will do much to improve the public school, although it may lead to healing of the community. Unfortunately, the way schools are funded, poor schools - whether in the city or the country - get shafted all over this country. I doubt that a rural area of Virginia that is losing population is any exception.
I bought the book at an independent bookstore in Richmond, and the bookseller raved about the book and author. I wish I had been able to hear the author speak. My husband's aunt worked at Longwood College for many years, almost definitely during the time of the closed schools, but I never heard her or the rest of the family ever speak of it. (Sadly, she is no longer here to ask.) My husband's older brothers were kids during the time of desegregation in another rural Virginia county. They have some memories of it, and my husband mentioned a small private school in their area as being a school that was opened to be all white, but, again, no real discussion of the issue. He and I vaguely knew about the school closings in Prince Edward County, but had no idea how long the schools were closed, and he grew up in the region. The question of why this story is not as well known as many other civil rights stories is addressed in the book, but not fully answered.
I am not sure if I liked or disliked the author's personal anecdotes interspersed throughout the book. In some ways it humanized the story, but sometimes it seemed to trivialize the stories of the characters, both black and white, who were affected by the closings. In the Q&A in the end of the book, the author says that the book is both a history book and a memoir, and I'm not sure if that works. Maybe a book with an accompanying personal essay at the end would have been more effective.
The section of the white churches blocking the black students from entering was heartbreaking. You expect this of schools and businesses, but the fact that it happened in a house of G-d was horrible. Not surprising, I suppose, given what we know of people's feelings at the time, but given that churches are now often at the center of healing racial discourse, it was eye opening. What are our churches doing today in the name of G-d that will seem horribly hypocritical in years to come?
The part that was most eye-opening to me was what happened to white people who opposed closing the schools, worked in the public schools after they reopened, or who sent their kids to the public schools when they first reopened. They were not just shunned. They received death threats, their kids were harassed by adults, and they were at severe risk at losing businesses unless they had a lot of black customers. I don't know if I could have spoken up on behalf of integration if my kid was getting threats of violence as a result, and I have more respect now for people who spoke out even a little bit.
I work with schools both urban and rural, mostly white and mostly black, and I am skeptical that closing the private school in town will do much to improve the public school, although it may lead to healing of the community. Unfortunately, the way schools are funded, poor schools - whether in the city or the country - get shafted all over this country. I doubt that a rural area of Virginia that is losing population is any exception.