Freshwater Road

by Denise Nicholas

The critically acclaimed debut novel from pioneering actress and writer Denise Nicholas tells the story of one young woman’s coming of age via the political and social upheavals of the civil rights movement. Nineteen-year-old Celeste Tyree leaves Ann Arbor to go to Pineyville, Mississippi, in the summer of 1964 to help found a voter registration project as part of Freedom Summer. As the summer unfolds, she confronts not only the political realities of race and poverty in this tiny town, but also deep truths about her family and herself. Drawing on Nicholas’ own involvement in the movement, Freshwater Road was hailed by Newsday as “Perhaps the best work of fiction ever done about the civil rights movement.”

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, African American, Historical, Ebooks, Southern, Young Adult

333 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Denise Nicholas is an American actress, writer, and social activist who was involved in the American Civil Rights Movement. She is known primarily for her role as high school guidance counselor Liz McIntyre on the ABC comedy-drama series Room 222, and for her role as Councilwoman Harriet DeLong on the NBC/CBS drama series In the Heat of the Night.

For further information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_...

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freshwater Road by Denise Nicholas is a mesmerizing novel set during Freedom Summer in 1964, when young people from all over America were converging on Mississippi to register black people for the vote. It follows Celeste Tyree, an idealistic, carefully raised black University of Michigan sophomore who is swept up in civil rights issues on her campus, and decides to join the movement and go to Mississippi, to put her beliefs into action.

It also follows her father, Shuck, a bar owner in Detroit, a numbers man and self-professed 'race man' who believes in progress and the future of black people--who is both furious and terrified when he learns that his precious daughter has already gone down to Mississippi. The urge to protect his daughter clashes head-on with his belief in advancing the rights of black Americans.

One of the best novels ever about the Civil Rights Movement. Nicholas, besides being a well-known actress, screenwriter and veteran of the Civil Rights Movement herself (she was in the SNCC and one of the founders of the Free Southern Theater), is an amazing novelist. The lyricism of place, her fully formed and questioning characters, the wonderful originality of each scene, brings each part of this dramatic story vividly alive.

One of my favorite scenes occurs early on, in Shuck's bar, where all the regulars are discussing recent events in Mississippi. Each of the customers has their own take, on race history in Detroit, on Emmett Till, whether one should go down to the South and fight for civil rights or to attend to the fight right there in Detroit. Then Shuck opens a letter, and it's Celeste telling him she has gone down for "One Man One Vote." It's a real thing of beauty. Great multi character dialogue scenes are the toughest thing to do in fiction writing, but Nicholas is able to do it brilliantly, plumbing the differences of opinion, bringing us up to date on the history, both in the South and in Detroit, the range of opinions, while showing us the personal relationships between characters and Shuck's dreams and fears.

"Who's in Mississippi?" Millicent jerked around, leaned on the bar top like she might slide down to Shuck and Posey, save whoever it was in Mississippi.

"Shuck's daughter." Posey poured Shuck another drink, brandishing the elegant bottle of Crown Royal.

"Shuck felt the question-marked faces of hs regulars all turn to him, stare like they'd just heard some apocryphal madness The regulars knew his kids, had watched them grow up.

"Iris, her little curls and scalp parts looking like a road map to nowhere, glanced at the lush Negro images on the walls. "Well, baby, you got a problem now." She finished her drink and lit a cigarette, holding it like one of the elegant New York-looking women in the wallpaper.

"Shit's going on all over the country. She could come here and be in the Movement. Everything ain't that great right here." Shuck didn't know if the words came out of his mouth or not, but he sure thought them hard. The only thing to do with Mississippi was to leave it, to run away from it as fast as you could. Or better yet, blow it off the map of the United States. Not one more Negro person had to die in that place for the point to be made. Then a gnawing thought took hold. More than likely that paintbrush-wielding, blue-jeans-and-sandals-wearing white boyfriend had something to do with this decision. Shucks teeth clamped down until his jaw muscles hurt. Just like a white boy to lead his daughter to hell, a hell he more than likely would survive without a scratch but where she could die in a split second. He was white. He could fade into the woodwork of Mississippi or any place else for that matter. Celeste couldn't.

"'Now see, that's what I mean. You can't control these kids nowadays. That girl's had the best of everything for the day she was born, and look at her." Iris sucked on her cigarette, now the authority on raising children, satisfied, as if she and Shuck had something in common because her seventeen-year-old son had already been arrested for stealing a car...."

And the character of Celeste, principled but vulnerable, well-meaning but frequently naive, her real courage in undertaking the dangerous work registering voters in a rural community in Mississippi, her overcoming her own ingrained sense of privilege, as much as confronting the violence, is something I think of often these days.

Can't recommend this book more highly. Timely and terrific.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel tells the story of the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi. The story is told from the viewpoint of a female African American college student from Detroit who spends the summer as a volunteer in the Black community of a small Mississippi town organizing a voter registration drive and leading a Freedom School for the children.

The book provides a thorough description of life in a fictional small town typical for Mississippi at the time. This is a long book (16.5 hrs audio) that takes its time to fully recreate a historic time that compares the Black community of Detroit with that of rural Mississippi and provides a descriptive pass through Hattiesburg, Jackson, and New Orleans.

Aside from the the historical outline the book fills the pages with a fictional cast of characters which illustrate the divisions between and within the Black and White communities as well as the variety of personalities involved. It's a story that explores issues of family loyalties and infidelities. The book includes elements of a romance, and it tells of a mysterious death of a child that may have been murder. These elements of the book conclude much the same as the historic summer of 1964—not all mysteries and problems have been solved.

The book's narrative frequently reminds the reader that danger lurks from all directions, and the locals—including some of the Black population—don't appreciate the presence of these outsiders. This is the summer when James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered, and the mystery of their disappearance hangs heavily over the first half of this book's story. It doesn't take much imagination to fear that the same fate could happen to any of the other Freedom Summer volunteers.

This book does strive to recreate a specific time and place in history. However, it is a work of fiction and it's interesting to note some of the obvious name changes of organizations that the book used. For example the organizing entity for Freedom Summer in this book was named "One Man One Vote" whereas in actual history it was COFO or SNCC. Also, there's an organization in this book's story that doesn't agree with the nonviolent approach that goes by the name "Deacons of Justice."—probably patterned after the "Black Panthers".
________
The following are some excerpts from the book I found of interest. I included my own introductory comments for context.

Early in the book the protagonist acknowledges her relatively privileged background, but understands that race in America transcends class.

... race in America lived outside the purview of class or privilege, out there in a world all its own, not tethered to anything except hatred. (p.23)

Near the end of the summer our protagonist considered staying in Mississippi, but she discerned the following message from the local community she had been serving.

... that the Negro people of Pineyville needed the best: no more half-educated teachers, no more zealous "would-be-if-onlys." (p.461)

_____________
In the near future I look forward to participating in a book group Zoom meeting that will also be attended by the author Denise Nicholas. The following is a link to an interview with her. She talks about writing this book from 22 to 25 minute point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51R5G...

[Becka Applegate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not realize how dangerous the Civil Rights Movement was in Mississippi... this book has opened my eyes to the depth and widespread racism that lay inherent in the South during the 60's - far more intense than history books ever painted it in my mind. Great read.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1964 Denise Nicholas, while still a student, went to Mississippi as a volunteer for the One Man One Vote Movement. Over 40 years later, she used her experiences as a springboard for the events in this absorbing novel. I started reading it out of respect for the author who I met on a train earlier this year, but found myself caught up in the propellant plot and the gorgeous prose. Her literary style is vibrant with the history she experienced firsthand. Thanks to her clarity, humor and compassion, she has crafted a story that should have received as much attention as the much lauded "The Help" which has hovered on the best seller lists for almost two years.

Celeste, Nicholas's fictional counterpart, has lived her entire life in Michigan, and what she goes through during that steamy tension-laden summer reawakens the reader to those times and reminds one of the bravery of the (mostly young) volunteers whose mission was to educate Mississippi's black residents in order that they might register to vote. The idea is that if they can get voters in the most oppressive areas, the "softer" states will follow. Celeste's assignment is a small town, where she sets up a school for the children, coaches adults. The immediacy of her situation is fleshed out in her struggles to adapt to the southern way of life and, most particularly, her attempts to maintain her standards of cleanliness in a house without indoor plumbing. The characters come to life, and situations are presented with no clear cut resolution, making the reader impatient to know what happened to these people further down the line.

Everyone supposedly has one book in them; let's hope this isn't the only one Denise Nicholas has in her.

[Jenee Rager · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was such a mixed bag for me. There were parts that were wonderfully written, the descriptions of the racism during Freedom Summer, and the fear the volunteers felt seemed very true to me, and therefore was very moving. However there were parts of the book that I was just like blah, blah, blah there is no point. The whole situation with Celeste maybe not being her father's child, but rather the product of an affair her mother had... why even put that in this book. Same with the romance with Ed. It just didn't fit, wasn't detailed enough, and thus weighed down the book. I would have rather those pages been used for something else. Maybe a better history of Matt, or one of the other supporting players. I also didn't like the way that Sissy's death was hinted at as being caused by her father, or maybe the Klan, or maybe just an accident. Such a tragedy being better described, and at least partially solved would have left much more of an impact for me as a reader.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a little bit too young (a phrase I seldom get to use anymore) to remember much about the civil rights movement. This book presents a scary portrait of Freedom Summer in Mississippi. I wish I could say that people treat each other a little better these days but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I do remember the TV show, Room 222, but when I tell people I’m reading a book by Denise Nicholas from that series, nobody else seems to know it.

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

FRESHWATER ROAD is a novel that explores the experiences of Celeste Tyree, an African American woman in her late teens, a student at the University of Michigan, who had left Ann Arbor to work as a volunteer in Mississippi during the 'Freedom Summer' of 1964 as part of the 'One Man One Vote' project to encourage and help African Americans there to register to vote.

Mississippi in the summer of 1964 was a forbidding, fearsome, and at times violent place for African Americans, where the prevailing white power structure kept a tight rein on them, reinforcing in every conceivable way the prevailing ethos of white people as superior to Negroes, and Negroes as inferior, lesser beings better ruled by white people.

From the moment Celeste arrived in Mississippi in early summer and had been given an orientation in Jackson (the state capital) to what her mission would entail over a 2-month period, she is made starkly aware of what daily life in Mississippi is for Negroes. She would face arrest on a couple of occasions and be shot at one night in the home in Pineyville, where she stayed with a Mrs. Geneva Owens, an elderly, deeply pious widow. Celeste would teach the local Negro (African American) children at a 'freedom school' in the local, Negro church, as well as help educate the African American adults in the community who wanted to be registered to vote, notwithstanding the many obstacles the whites had set for close to a century, which prevented (through intimidation and murder) almost all African Americans in Mississippi from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

At the same time, while Celeste is facing all of these challenges, back in Detroit her father, Shuck, an ex-numbers man now running his own bar and living in his own home in the affluent northwest section of the city, is worried about his only daughter. Rather than tell her father face-to-face of her plan to go to Mississippi, Celeste posted him a letter informing him of her intentions shortly before she travelled south. The novel provides a contrast between Celeste's experiences and Shuck's anxieties and concern for his daughter over the 2 months she spent in Mississippi. All in all, this proved to be a very gripping and revelatory novel.

Reading FRESHWATER ROAD has given me - who was born in the autumn of 1964 in Michigan - a deep respect and admiration for those student volunteers, black and white, who risked their lives to go to Mississippi during 'Freedom Summer' to help bring democracy and voting rights to the African Americans there. Every American now living today needs to know about "Freedom Summer" and the sacrifices that were made not quite 60 years ago to help put an end to the oppressive yoke of Jim Crow segregation in the Deep South.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wondul historic fiction novel about, Celeste Tyree, an idealistic University of Michigan African American student, who takes the summer off and heads to Mississippi to work for the voting rights of the black population there. Set in the early 60's, the novel is the story of the voter rights movement and the violence and cruelty that the black people in the south endured until they earned the right to vote.

Celeste goes to Pineyville, Mississippi, where she runs the One Man, One Vote office. She holds a childrens education class in the mornings and an adult voter preparation class in the evening. She has lived a very sheltered life in Michigan, so the squalid conditions og the poor black folks takes her by surprise. She is also surprised by the segregation that still exists.

This is a strong book about the fight of blacks to gain the right to vote. Many folks were beaten and killed until the right to vote was given to all citizens. The excellent writing is by actress Denise Nicholas in her 1st book that has been published.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was beautifully descriptive and a great snapshot of Freedom Summer. Although it was terribly hard to stomach the hatred and violence (worse yet that it represented REAL events and attitudes), it was also a beautiful reminder that there are courageous, dedicated, selfless people willing to follow their moral compass no matter the stakes.
I was fascinated to know that the author took part in Freedom Summer and therefore had keen insights into this pivotal time in both Mississippi and our country.

[Lauren Cecile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised by how good this book was because I didn't know the actress Denise Nicholas could write! Great story about people who risked their lives and well-being to register black people to vote.

[Jessica Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story! Perfect novel to read for Black History Month. Very sad parts, but such a great story. So hard to think that in just 1964 it was sooo bad down in the deep south. I thought her relationship with Ed was a bit rushed, and Celeste was quite irresponsible in that respect, but otherwise a great story. Highly recommend.

[Rob Bauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was tough for me to rate this book. It's about the Civil Rights Movement, specifically, the Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign orchestrated by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Because I've studied both SNCC and Freedom Summer, the biggest problem I had with the book was that the plot twists just weren't very surprising for me.

Now, if you aren't someone who teaches about the Civil Rights Movement, and you've never read In Struggle, by Clayborne Carson, or any of the other books about SNCC, you'll probably feel differently about the plot, and enjoy some quality reading.

Freshwater Road has several good points I can mention. The characters in Mississippi are varied and believable. Celeste, the main character, is a pleasantly complex young lady with both fears and courage. Reverend Singleton also stood out for me as someone to empathize with. Likewise for Sister Mobley. When the chips are down, they rise to the occasion.

Another strength of the book is the way author Denise Nicholas makes the summer heat in Mississippi a character in the story. She won't let the reader forget that they're in Mississippi in the midst of summer, living in an old house that wasn't in good shape even when it was a new house.

In spite of these good points, I had some other concerns besides just familiarity with the plot. The action in Detroit with Celeste's father, Shuck, receives several chapters but has almost no bearing on the story. 98% of the story would have transpired exactly the same had those chapters never been written, and the 2% that did change was hardly a critical 2%. In addition, several events in Celeste's personal/family life that the reader expects might be a big deal are mentioned once or twice but not followed up on.

Beyond that, the story suffers from the overuse of adjectives, and I've never met a college student who could tell so much about others just from the look in their eyes.

Finally, I enjoyed the Mississippi ending of the book, but found the Detroit ending rather unsatisfactory. Too bad. This was close to being a really good book.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I coincidentally read this book at the same time the movie "The Butler" (which I saw) came out in the theater, and while I found it at times to be wordy, lengthy and a bit too descriptive, I did enjoy the story of Celeste Tyree (if enjoy is the correct word to be used when reading about the Freedom Project). Page after page I felt tired, sore, rundown, hot and sticky along with Celeste, and the author did a very good job describing the events that took place in two summer months. This is a good read book for those who may want to read about the Freedom Project from the sixties but also understand it is a book about the abuses and horrific behavior of those people mistreating African Americans. More importantly, it is an interesting read about one young woman from the North and several locals of Pineyville, Mississippi trying to make a small change with voters rights. I would highly recommend it.

[Delores · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as content, this book was a great read. I could actually visualize how things were in Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement. I could imagine the fear of the black people and when Sissy died, i felt it in my heart. However, this book was not an easy read. I can read books usually within a day or two. It took me a week to read this book.

[Msladydeborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freshwater Road was number one on my personal reading list in 2009. I was totally immersed in the story from the beginning to the end. This is definitely one of the better novels written about the Civil Rights Era. It has a lot of texture within the story line. It is a well written novel.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome book! The first novel by Denise Nicholas (of Room 222 fame) tells the story of the fight to get African American voting rights in early 1960s Mississippi. The story is so well written and compelling that it was hard for me to put down.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical fiction account of Freedom Summer. I often wonder if I would have had as much courage as those known and unknown heroes of the Civil Rights movement to stand up for justice and basic human rights. I would like to think so.

[Toledo (T.J.) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the perspective this book brought to the Voting Rights time in the South. Gentle, thoughtful touches were scattered throughout.

[Donna Oster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book, but distressing to read about the obstacles Americans had to battle in order to vote in the 1960’s in Mississippi. Great writing.

[Lorna · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author is an actress who took a shot at writing a book, so I don't suppose a one-star review will break her heart.

WTF did I just read? The plot was all over the place, with so. many. freaking. pages for no payoff. So much tension in so many unresolved storylines.

What was the purpose of Shuck's POV? He never goes flying to the rescue, despite vowing in every chapter to do so the moment it becomes necessary. And he's only dubious about what Celeste is doing, not condemning it. He's never really worked for The Man, so he's not resentful and needing Celeste to be his proxy, and he hasn't spent a lifetime going along to get along, so he's not afraid Celeste will jeopardize all he's worked for. (Yes, I know that's The Butler, but I liked that movie.) Instead, he just rolls from his bar to another bar to his mother's house and back again, all the while grumbling about that stubborn daughter of his. And?

The white boyfriend doesn't rate a full name, just initials. He has so little to do with the story, why bring him in at all? And first, we’re led to believe they’re On a Break, and only because he’s going to Paris and she’s going to Mississippi. *Then*, many pages later, we find out that earlier, she went to a shady doctor because of him. ??? An abortion tends to put more of a strain on a relationship than being apart for the summer. And what is she *now* doing about birth control? I’d rather hear about the relative difficulty of *preventing* pregnancy, instead of the shock/horror of A Procedure.

And the hot guy from N’awlins. Was waiting to find out that either Celeste was pregnant, Ed was married/as good as, or to really turn up the heat, both. Or Ed gets killed. Cliches, yes, but at least there would be *some* purpose to the scene of their smushing. The interlude would have been more powerful, IMO, if one of them had shut things down after only one hot kiss, saying they were taking enough risks as it was. And then have that motivate Celeste: she aims to see Ed again and resolve that tension. Also, it helps to introduce the love interest earlier than halfway through the story. I figured if there was one at all, it would be Matt: you know, the guy we saw first.

Wilamena's big secret: why bring that up *at all*, much less make it open-ended? Someone dies and it's sad, but we never find out what happened or why. And after all the nastiness about registering to vote, I was waiting for the newly registered voters to mysteriously disappear afterwards. Not that I *wanted* that to happen! Just that it was odd how they were abruptly given their voter cards, and we don’t know what changed or who changed it.

And ugh, the author is as bad as Anne Rivers Siddons for having one line of dialogue, a page and a half about feelings/facial expressions/the atmosphere in the room or wherever/a shared history or strangeness between the characters/feelings again, and finally another line of dialogue.

All in all, I wasted eight days reading this; just glad it’s on my Kindle, so I don’t have to find a spot for it, or find someone to give it to. I learned more from, and was more intrigued by, Warriors Don’t Cry, by Melba Patillo Beals. She was one of the Little Rock Nine, so not covering the same ground, but Beals places the reader in the scene, with an intensity that Denise Nicholas just couldn’t match.

[Donna’s Book Addiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

This critically acclaimed debut novel from pioneering retired actress, writer, and social activist. Denise Nicholas, who was involved in the American Civil Rights Movement, and spent two years touring the deep South with the Free Southern Theatre (FST) tells the story of one young woman’s coming of age via the political and social upheavals of the civil rights movement. Nineteen-year-old Celeste Tyree leaves Ann Arbor to go to Pineyville, Mississippi, in the summer of 1964 to help found a voter registration project as part of Freedom Summer. As the summer unfolds, she confronts not only the political realities of race and poverty in this tiny town, but also deep truths about her family and herself.

Drawing on Nicholas’ own involvement in the civil rights movement, gives the author the credibility to pen this novel into a work of storytelling fit for the era. The novel won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award for debut fiction in 2006, as well as the American Library Association’s Black Caucus Award for debut fiction the same year.

I attended a book signing/reading of this book after its release, at the Main Public Library in Detroit on March 15, 2007. Ms. Nichols herself was present. Here it is 2021 and I am just now reading this novel. Actually…I’m listening to the 10th Anniversary edition of the novel thru Audible.

Ms. Nicholas was born on July 12, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan, and having grown up in Michigan myself, I appreciated the setting for Shuck in Detroit names of cities; Ann Arbor, West Detroit, Grosse Pointe, places such as White Castle hamburgers, Fox Theater, Wayne State University, Belle Isle, and the people; Wolfman Jack…etc. I lived near Livernoise and Outer Drive in West Detroit then moved near Ann Arbor, and currently living in Alabama.

I’m so sorry it took me a decade to read this novel that has re-emerged as a very poignant moment in our current state of history and voting freedom that we face in the year 2021. Some of the chapters were short, which still held the cadence of the story in good timing. The novel was both entertaining and packed with memories, history and familiarity.

The writing style is beautifully written in prose. Nichols weaves in euphemisms, and very descriptive words that seem to overemphasize the narrative, but in an artistic way. I enjoyed the journey with Celeste and all of its high and lows along the way from Michigan to Mississippi. I felt that listening to the story in audio was more impactful and reaching. I’m proud to possess this book, autographed by Ms. Nichols in my personal library. It’s a literary achievement!

https://denisenicholas.net/author/

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't give many 5 star reviews. I reserve 5 stars for classics and those which i hold as undiscovered classics. This is one of those. The story is one that needs to be told. It's about the fight for voting rights in the Mississippi in the early 1960s. I was a teenager back then, living in the north, and blissfully unaware of the different world that existed in the south, except for the occasional news broadcast showing marches and talking about civil rights. Things i really didn't understand and things i really couldn't because i was a privileged white northern teen. The story in the book is about a northern black college student who goes to a small town in Mississippi for the summer in 1964 to help register blacks to vote. She is met with a world those from the north have no way of being prepared for. A world where, though there are laws proclaiming equality, their practice has not been enforced yet. Blacks still have separate bathrooms, entrances to public places, churches, medical facilities and restaurants. They must lower their eyes and cross the street when approached by a white person on the street. They must be deferential to whites at all times or suffer consequences which may include lynching. Though they legally have the right to vote, local and state laws make it impossible for them to qualify to vote. So when she arrives in this world, she's taken aback by the reality of it all. The story moves slowly. At first i grew impatient with it, wanting more action, but in time i found the pace of the story matched the pace of the South. In the oppressive heat of the mississippi delta and the oppressive social climate, things DO move slow. The story follows this one summer in this one small town. Small victories, major setbacks, personal growths and disappointments. It's a wonderful story, beautifully written. It should be required reading in history, sociology, and literature classes. So much that needs to be remembered here.

[Sunhawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like it says on the back cover: "best work of fiction about the civil rights movement . . ." Right from the start I knew the writer's head was in the right place: "Surely there was enough injustice in Mississippi to validate her coming, and she didn't consider it a favor." [page 9] That would have been (and too often was) the terrible mistake northern civil rights workers made.
This book recalled forcefully how different her experience was from mine -- black, not white; female, not male; 1964, not 1966 -- and yet how alike -- fictional Pineyville in the far south and Sunflower, the gentle hosts, the intense sense of menace, the self-righteously bigoted whites. "'They always botherin' somebody.' Otis sounded like Shuck. No rancor. That's just the way things were." and Ed replies, "We supposed to just wake up one morning like it didn't happen?" [p177]
There was progress: our protagonist manages to get three of her adult students registered to vote, the first in Pearl River County, two of them older women who brought their bibles with them to the registrar's office. Yet the root problem remained. "Celeste wondered if the Bibles were meant to protect them from blows to the head. Or maybe they give solace, a spiritual buttress against the realization that the white people of Pineyville despised them beyond their wildest and worst anticipations, possessing a simmering hatred, an unqualified disdain that could be provoked by a laugh or even a smile, and ratcheted up quickly to physical abuse." [p243]

[Melanie Rippon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Describes the 1964 "Freedom Summer" & the drive to register Black people to vote in America's South, through the eyes of Celeste, a university/college student; the action is split between Mississippi & Celeste's hometown of Detroit & the plot is as much about the vote drive as it is Celeste's coming-of-age. The characters are well drawn & vivid, even those you only meet briefly & the Southern heat itself becomes a character, as does the racial tension/hatred - though some reviewers have described the book as adjective-heavy. The secondary "plot" involving Celeste's father Shuck back in Detroit & some family history, doesn't really impinge on the Mississippi action so not sure why it was included, except maybe to emphasise further just how bad things were in the South? As well as showing why Celeste felt she had to go South in the first place? Though it's made clear not everything is rosy in the North, either. The action in the South feels well-resolved though definitely not a "fairy-tale"/neat ending; not so much the Detroit action, perhaps to show that Celeste isn't maybe as grown up as she thinks she now is? If like me the American civil rights movement isn't something you've ever studied in any detail, then this is a great fictional introduction to the topic & the acknowledgements section at the back mentions a few nin-fiction books on the topic; there are also an interview with the author & a reading group discussion guide.

[Lottie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book and decided to give it four stars. I listened on audio. 

I found myself wanting to continue the story with the characters. I wanna know did she follow her heart? I want to know what happened with her tripped out mother? Ugh. And did they find out more about the “accident”?????

Not trying to create a spoiler but…

As I said before when I started reading this book it was really twilight zone for me because it paralleled with so much of my own history just as a relates to geography. This book is set at times right on the street where I lived growing up. So all of the landmarks and everything always referred to things that I know a lot about which just felt weird!  The main character went to college in the city where I was born, Ann Arbor Michigan. The main character goes down south to Mississippi, where some of my ancestors are from.  (twilight zone)

I think it was a very well written depiction of what it must’ve been like that fateful Freedom Summer. So it was an excellent way to learn about that history. It was a reminder of how heinous, shocking and terrible aspects of that history are when we were just trying to have the right to vote!

I will say there were a few characters in a few occurrences during the story however that really left me hanging! And I don’t know how I feel about that. There was one incident involving a child… that I just cannot understand and yet I do understand the cultural norms that made the reaction the way it was but… It still left me horrified! I think perhaps that incident alone spoke more to what the community was up against than the Ku Klux Klan honestly!!

This is definitely a good discussion book. I really appreciated it. It was difficult in places and redeeming in others.

Overall, 4 stars.

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[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Celeste is an idealist young Black woman who volunteers to work for Mississippi's Freedom Summer registering Black voters and teaching young children. Nicholas, who herself was involved in the Civil Rights movement, does an admirable job of portraying how much was risked by these volunteers for such uncertain and often small outcomes. I particularly liked her portrayals of the persistence and courage of the men and women who registered and all the hoops and obstacles that prevented them from exercising their rights. Nicholas also really immerses you in the world of Mississippi--the heat, the poverty, the segregation and unspoken rules that existed between Blacks and Whites at the time. A few subplots felt a little extraneous--any time the story jumped to Celeste's parents I wanted to be back in the company of Celeste, the Reverend Singleton, Sister Mobley, and the children Celeste taught in Freedom School. This is a thoughful, immersive novel that illuminates a pivotal moment in the country.

[M Delea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the few books I have ever read about which I can honestly say the prose was poetic and lyrical. There are images, clauses, and sentences I would still for poems if I were a plagiarist type of person.

Beyond that, this is a powerful coming-of-age novel about a young college student from Detroit spending the summer of 1964 in a small MS town, trying to register blacks to vote and teaching Freedom School.

Nicholas captures the time period and the place perfectly, and these 2 things are as important as any character in the book. Celeste, the main character, interacts with other blacks in ways which are real and relatable.

Some alternate chapters are given to her father and their family history. I felt some if these could have been condensed.

Overall, a great novel, beautifully written, about a horrifying time/place in America’s history.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely an interesting story. This story is about a part of civil rights movement I’d never heard of. It is a story about a black college girl, Celeste, who travels from Michigan to Mississippi to be a part of Freedom Summer. The goal was to get as many blacks registered to vote as possible. I didn’t know that blacks could not vote in Mississippi in the early 60s so this was a good history lesson for me. There were some suspenseful parts, some touching parts, some sad parts, and even a little bit of romance. It was also slow moving at points. There was also a side story about Celeste and her fragmented relationship with her mother. I wasn’t really sure why that was important or how it really added to the story.

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Celeste Tyree is a college student in Detroit, Michigan in the mid 60's. She travels down to Mississippi to help with the One Man, One Vote program to help get the Negro people to register for the coming elections. Celeste opens an adult school for those who wantto register as well as a Freedom school for the local children. The trials and tribulations she encounters along the way are eyeopening for her as this is not the life she had grown up in. Needless to say, Celeste pushes forward with much stamina and her new local friends behind her.
This was a good read, touching the heart of the reader. I look forward to reading more of Denise Nicholas' books.

[Nancy Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It is a novel of a young Black woman from Detroit who volunteered as part of Mississippi Summer in 1964, a movement to register rural Black citizens for voting. It entailed finding people brave enough to host the education efforts, brave enough to take the classes required for registration, and then brave enough to register and to vote. Some of these young volunteers were killed in their efforts, some of the voters were killed or had their houses burned. It's not a perfect novel, but it's very readable and describes a heroic time that I haven't seen chronicled in other fiction. I think it's an important book.