1959

1959

by Thulani Davis

 

Nomination: LA Times Finalist 1992

 

Date Read: July 26, 2021

 

“You know our problem?” asked Murfree. “We always expect a moral response to an immoral situation.” In some way, 1959 can be summed up by this quote. 1959 was a time of racial unrest, the black community still denied basic civil rights and the Civil Rights Amendment not even on the horizon. Still, not much has changed.

 

Willie Tarrant is 12 and growing up witnessing the vast changes around her. Bright and an excellent student, she is being considered as one of the guinea pigs to begin desegregating the schools. I cannot imagine being one of six students to integrate a school at such a young age. The hostility, prejudice, bullying and potential violence she would have faced is unimaginable.

 

As moderately sheltered as Willie is by her college-educated father, she begins to see the changes happening in her community of Turner, Virginia. The first sit-ins begin at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, a peaceful protest that demands attention and equality. Willie slowly begins to feel the weight of having extra melanin in her skin and what that means for her future, her worth and her opportunities. She slowly begins to absorb her father’s admonitions that she needs to be “…twice as good for half as much.”

 

Turner slowly withers as the black community organizes and boycotts the local white-run stores. They begin actively registering their peers to vote, to make their political voices heard. Ironically, we still are haggling over these rights as the GOP actively seeks to curtail citizen’s access to the ballot box.

 

This is a powerful novel that once again makes me aware of my white privilege and the blessings and opportunities afforded me as a white woman. Our nation’s past will always be shameful but it would be less so if our present weren’t as repressive as it is.