Tupelo

by Alec Clayton

A tale told from beyond the grave by Kevin Lumpkin, the youngest of a set of identical twins, Tupelo is the story of a small town in an era of reluctant change. as seen through the eyes of a white boy born to privilege who comes of age in the time of Freedom Riders, lunch counter sit-ins, civil rights marches and demonstrations. Born in 1943 on the night when their father’s hardware store burns to the ground, Kevin and his brother grow up in idyllic times, the boom years of the 1950s—football, fast cars, rock and roll, and dates with the cutest girls in school. But gradually he discovers that he and his family live in a protected bubble while less than a block away in an area known as The Alley, a handful of black families live in poverty, almost invisible to Kevin and his family. He develops a crush on Maddie Jean, a young girl from The Alley, but they both know they can never be friends. He watches in confusion as his white friends react to the growing civil rights movement, in horror as they riot on campus at nearby Ole Miss when James Meredith breaks the color barrier at the university, and he witnesses the trial of another child of The Alley who is falsely accused of rape and murder.

350 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 14, 2016

About the author

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1943, I grew up in the Deep South and later moved to New York and later still to Olympia, Washington. I am a painter as well as a writer and continue to show in galleries in the Seattle and Tacoma areas. I write regular art and theater reviews for area newspapers. I am also a gay rights activist.
Although not autobiographical, the settings settings for my novels are the places where I have lived, and my personal involvement in the arts and glbt issues play a large role. My novels are self-published. My first two novels, "Until the Dawn" and "Imprudent Zeal," are about artists. "The Wives of Marty Winters," a work in progress, is about a newspaper editor and gay rights activist. All three are family sagas covering many decades.