The Sweet Shade of a Chinaberry Tree

by Janice Ward Parrish

Gaynell McGowan, forced to spend the summer of 1963 in her little town of Beulah, Alabama, returns home from college to face a provincial purgatory until classes resume in the fall. But history is about to strike Beulah like a deadly tornado. A federal order to integrate the high school shakes the town to its foundation and pits friend against neighbor. White citizens polarize into integrationists and segregationists with both sides claiming the favor of God and vying for the favor of reporters and news cameras that swarm over the town. Gaynell welcomes the disruption of a stagnant small-town summer, but then finds herself swirling at the scandalous center of the storm. And she finds her family, as well as her town, tearing apart.

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps in another time and place, this would have been the sweet story of summer love. Gaynell McGowan returns to her home town on her college break filled with new ideas and lots of ideas for her future. She meets and falls madly in love with Willis Jones, a young man from Chicago fulfilling his dream of becoming a veterinarian.

Unfortunately, the year is 1963. Gaynell's home town is Beulah, Alabama. This is a town being torn apart by talk that the local high school is going to become integrated. Gaynell and Willis never had a chance.

The Sweet Shade of a Chinaberry Tree not only reminds of the not so distant past but also serves as a wake up call about contemporary issues of racism. Although the actual story is fictional, the author has used real historical events and real people within the story to add a deeper sense of realism and to educate the reader about the circumstances of this time and place in American history.