"White blossoms to frame a black man. I straightened abruptly from the casket. Even in mortis Joe Billy seemed to threaten mobility. A laugh. A curse. Nobody could predict what Joseph William King would do in life. Nor even, apparently, in death."
There are good people and bad on both sides of the tracks that divide Laureate from 'Colored Town'. Our instruction in that hard truth comes as we follow two African-American teens, Cilla Handsom and Joe Billy King, as they endure the backlash resulting from the integration of their segregated school with the all-white school run by Lafayette County's all-white school board.
The issue of the education of Laureate's children will expose hatreds on both sides of the color divide. Cilla will emerge from her ordeal carrying scars and grace to become a widely traveled classical musician. Joe Billy will be found hanging from the bars of his cell in a Florida penitentiary. Their moving, intertwined dramas put courage, cowardice, loyalty and betrayal side by side in an eloquent, evocative narrative where the demons and angels of a time and place are portrayed in black and white.
About the Author
 Darryl Wimberley is an author and screenwriter who resides with his family in Austin, Texas.
Author's Website
|
The Critics Praise:
"Darryl Wimberley is one of the best story-tellers around, setting you right in a scene and dragging you so close to a character, you can smell what he’s thinking. In Wimberley’s latest, The King of Colored Town, we hear the eloquent voice of Cilla Handsom against the compelling undertone of Joe Billy King, and the resulting harmony against the discordant racial politics of the Sixties makes for a soulful song. It’s a drama told with real flair."
- David Galef
"Wimberley paints complex characters against a backdrop of brutally violent racial oppression...truly heartfelt storytelling." - Kirkus, starred review
"Wimberley’s take on the prickly themes of racism and poverty is made memorable by a gripping story line, authentic voice and dead-on dialogue." - Publishers Weekly
"Wimberley’s surprisingly affecting novel explores school integration in Florida in the 1960s through the eyes of tall, musically gifted Cilla Handsom. …Cilla’s life reveals an
authentic glimpse of a moment in history. Recommended." - Library Journal
|
