Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin

by Deborah E. McDowell

"McDowell captures the aspirations and realities of the working-class residents of Pipe Shop, infusing them with unshakable dignity, luminous grace, and profound compassion."―Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, San Francisco Chronicle In the illuminating language of memory, Deborah McDowell tells the story of her family, living a segregated life in Bessemer, Alabama, where her father worked at U.S. Foundry and Pipe, nicknamed Pipe Shop. Through the intimate details of their daily lives, she shows us how civil rights affected a working-class town, among three generations of women and men. McDowell movingly uncovers a world rarely portrayed, where she was raised to love the sounds and meanings of words and to value a place and culture that has passed. "What an eye McDowell has for important stories hidden in the everyday details, and what a good storyteller she is."―Tonya Bolden, Washington Post Book World "[McDowell] weaves the plainest drab cotton threads into a magic carpet."―Adele Logan Alexander, Women's Review of Books "Engrossing. . . . The author has a seductive way with words that makes Leaving Pipe Shop as good as a piece of sweet potato pie served after a plate of greens and fried chicken."― Boston Globe Illustrated

Genres: Memoir

364 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir about growing up in an African-American family in small-town Alabama, very poignant in retrospect. Though not the intent of this memoir, all I could think of is how much better life would be for African Americans if they had access to decent medical care. Also, how children don't understand the effects of racial discrimination and how deeply it affects daily familial life.
Fortunate author Deborah E. McDowell, a professor at University of Virginia, went back home to provide perspective with adult eyes.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a history class but it is one of my favorite books. A professor's memoirs of growing up in the South during the Civil Rights movement.

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book on Tuesday and finished by Sunday. It’s an intense book but the language was mesmerizing. It’s just a well done memoir, a fascinating evocation of a town and a family.

[Elizabeth Higginbotham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin by Deborah E. McDowell is really a memoir mostly about kin in her Alabama, Bessemer, outside of Birmingham. The multi-generational family face economic challenges as well as the discrimination of their era. Born after World War II, she has more advantages—attending college and becoming a member of the faculty. However, little of that is in the book, the focus is on the strategies for survival family members employ support themselves and stay together.

Her grandmother gets a nursing degree and then spends weeks caring for a family. Her father works on and off at the Pipe Shop, never able to launch a career as a tailor. He mother does sew for people and her family but repairs clothing for a dry cleaner. A good look at how Black Southerners survived during deindustrialization of the 1960s and 1970s, but she does not present it as such.

Deborah’s generation headed to college, but there is much secrecy about their lives. It is like Deborah comes home for funeral and holidays, but this last trip she really investigates the place where her father worked. However, they can find no records of his employment beyond a couple of dates. Amazing, you can be a central part of workforce and still there is no evidence of what you did.

[Virginia Cobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so impressed by McDowell’s ability to explore the world of her childhood with authentic clarity and a sense of entertainment. Having grown up in Alabama, I of course resonated with the setting, but this book would captivate anyone interested in the way it captures the history of regular people living in a time of great social and economic change. Similarly, McDowell’s perspective on integration as someone who grew up Black in the fifties and sixties is nuanced, and she describes how while desegregation was overall a social victory, in practice her community changed, with local businesses who catered to the Pipe Shop community losing customers as larger conglomerate stores opened their stores to Black customers eager to take advantage of spaces that had previously been segregated. Anyways, highly recommended!

[Darlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book.