An American Story

A Novel of Black Migration North

It is 1908 when white master, Robert Fox, and his Negro servant, Wilma, welcome their daughter, Millie, into the world. Five years later, Robert and Wilma set a wedding date. But the night before the celebration, the KKK races down the hill to the plantation where they place a noose around Wilmas neck. With moments to spare, Robert sends Millie down an underground tunnel to seek refuge with his cousin in Texas. The plantation burns to the ground, leaving no survivors. Soon, Millie and her Negro protectors arrive at the house of Judge Zacharias Maverick where the girl remains hidden, goes by Esther, and suffers abuse at the hands of the judge. But when Maverick is murdered, Millie leaves her oppressive past behind and flees Texas with sharecropper Sam Clark. As the Great Depression, drugs, and civil strife dominate Americas twentieth century, Sam, Millie, and other Negros must begin anew in the ghettos of the northern cities where nothing is certain. In this novel rich in folklore and history, two Negroes flee the Jim Crow south to seek freedom, only to encounter new injustices and cruelty in the north that test their love, perseverance, and inner-strength.