The Beginning

by Patrick D. Smith

Patrick D. Smith, award-winning author of A Land Remembered , Forever Island , and other classic novels about Mississippi and Florida, wrote The Beginning in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights movement. He offered an inside perspective on its effect on the people, both black and white, caught in the upheaval of the changing South. Now a new generation of readers can reassess the times and the decisions of those who lived through them. Midvale is an imaginary small town in southern Mississippi in the 1960s. Life moves at a pace set by its long, hot summers and dirt-poor economy. The African-Americans know their place and pretty much keep to it in “the quarters," a dilapidated section of town. The whites, mostly merchants and farmers, know their place too, living quiet, family-oriented lives. A reasonably friendly atmosphere prevails in this segregated society. Then Washington begins passing new laws, and a current of unrest ripples through town as a few blacks, for the first time, register to vote. Angry segregationist Sim Hankins demands that Sheriff Ike Thornton do something to stop it. Sheriff Thornton has his own ideas of what should be done to improve race rehabilitation of “the quarters" with indoor bathrooms, new roofs and paint, and paved streets. But his plan triggers violence between those who would keep the old ways and those willing to make a beginning toward the new. Then the outside world arrives in the form of two young white Civil Rights workers determined to start a “freedom school." The resulting violence and bloodshed carry the story to a climax not unlike the 1960s' newspaper headlines.

Genres: Historical Fiction

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Patrick Smith is a 1999 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, the highest and most prestigious cultural honor that can be bestowed upon an individual by the State of Florida.
In May 2002 Smith was the recipient of the Florida Historical Society’s Fay Schweim Award as the “Greatest Living Floridian.” The one-time-only award was established to honor the one individual who has contributed the most to Florida in recent history. Smith was cited for the impact his novels have made on Floridians, both natives and newcomers to the state, and for the worldwide acclaim he has received.

Smith has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize, in 1973 for Forever Island, which was a 1974 selection of the Reader’s Digest Condensed Book Club and has been published in 46 countries; in 1978 for Angel City, which was produced as a “Movie of the Week” for the CBS television network and has aired worldwide; and in 1984 for A Land Remembered, which was an Editors’ Choice selection of the New York Times Book Review. In the 2001 The Best of Florida statewide poll taken by Florida Monthly magazine, A Land Remembered was ranked #1 Best Florida Book. The novel also ranked #1 in all the polls since then. Smith’s lifetime work was nominated for the 1985 Nobel Prize for Literature, and since then he has received five additional nominations.

In 2008 he was honored with a Literary Heritage Award at the 1st Annual Heritage Book Festival in St Augustine. FLorida's Secretary of State Kurt Browning presented the award.

In 1995 Patrick Smith was elected by The Southern Academy of Letters, Arts and Science for its highest literary award, The Order of the South. Previous recipients include Eudora Welty, James Dickey, and Reynolds Price. In 1996 he was named a Florida Ambassador of the Arts, an honor given each year by the state of Florida to someone who has made significant contributions to Florida's cultural growth. In 1999 Smith was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, which is the highest and most prestigious cultural honor the state bestows upon an individual artist. Prior inductees include writers Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ernest Hemingway.

In October 1990 he received the University of Mississippi’s Distinguished Alumni Award and was inducted into the University’s Alumni Hall of Fame. In 1997, the Florida Historical Society created a new annual award, the Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award, in his honor.

Thousands of people of all ages have enjoyed his books and his talks. With his new DVD, A Sense of Place, you can spend an intimate hour with this soft-spoken author and gain an insight into the creative processes that resulted in his beloved books.

Patrick lives in Merritt Island, Florida with his wife Iris and his beloved cats.

Reviews

[Karolina Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Great insight into the characters of people and how that shapes our world.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having loved A Land Remembered, I was excited to find this one by Patrick Smith. The Beginning did not disappoint!
Growing up in a small town in the South during the 50’s and 60’s, I was swept by memories of the sights, sounds and events of the time. Smith’s vivid descriptions and deep insights into the characters presented a stark picture of that point in history. Although Midvale was imaginary, The Beginning painted a that could have been any of the hundreds of small towns struggling to integrate.
A must read.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Civil Rights demonstrations organizers - sad

[Jerry Smart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book. Showes you what one person with an agenda can do to a community. Sad to say I think this happened a number of times in the 1960's and even today with our sick political climate.

[Lester · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must admit that the issues described in the book - the tension between the 'races', heightened because of issues coming from the federal government, the place of 'white trash' in the pecking order, etc. all come together to make a compelling intellectual read. However, the style of writing was incredibly frustrating - it read more like a documentary than a story - and I kept pushing myself to get to the moments of story that were there. However, after realising that the writer had evoked no interest in the characters for me, I gave up after 8 chapters.

I then picked it up after a week, and read the story, skipping over vast amounts of monotone. The ending was not a surprise, and sadly, I was still left emotionless about the characters.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Midvale, where The Beginning takes place, is a small southern town where the population is about one-third black, two-thirds white, as it has been as long as anyone can remember. And for that long the town has been poor, and peaceful. Race relations are calm, mostly because everyone knows his place and no one questions it. There are racist rednecks lurking, but their power to do evil is largely contained by better-intentioned civic and religious leaders on both sides of town. Political leaders, all of them white, have become more sensitive to the bad conditions in the black quarter, caused largely to a selfish landlord who owns all the property, and they come up with a plan to improve housing and increase black voter participation. Into this pattern of gradual betterment come two civil rights workers from Berkeley, one of them a selfish oaf named Jeffrey VanDolan, the other a sweet education student named Miss Landcaster. VanDolan understands little and quickly tries to undermine local society by paying teenagers to demonstrate against "racist oppression," and his actions lead ultimately to beatings and murders. The novel ends with quiet stability, but no longer will there be real peace in Midvale.

Smith's characters are all caricatures to some degree - the townspeople better than one might expect, VanDolan vastly unlike the white civil rights workers I knew in the '60s - but they are well developed, sympathetic, and believable. The plot is convincing, the setting well drawn, and the book well worth reading for its view of civil rights work different from what most northerners have encountered.

[Gwen M/ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Civil Rights in the Old South

Early 60s federal push for equal rights in small town Mississippi comes at a high price. This formerly peaceful village sees "trained " voter's right's volunteers turn their quiet society into a battle zone. People are killed, buildings burned, and trust is lost. The worst animals are not the hogs, but the most ignorant, hate filled humans. Good intentions fall away as dishonesty wins the pyrrhic victory.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick Smith doing what he does best. Drawing the reader into the lives of this small Southern community. Smith does an excellent job showing both sides of the tracks. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Gefi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book about the civil rights movement that doesn't take sides but rather shows the good and bad of all sides.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected from him!

[Brittnee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A list of reasons to read this book:
1) It will toy with your emotions and your logic.
2) It is an honest reminder of the past.
3) You will think about it long after you finish it.