Lineage: A Memoir

by Maxine Thompson

Lineage by Maxine Thompson Memoir Hailing from the inner city of Detroit, sixteen-year-old Justine Wright, a Black teen, goes to live with a white family, the Barretts, in an all-white town, dubbed “The City,” located in Northern Michigan. The school year is 1967 to 1968—a segregated time in history punctuated by the explosive Detroit riots and the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination. Justine takes part in an experiment, which, initially is intended to be a two-way student exchange program, but winds up being a one-way student exchange program. No white students would volunteer to move to the Detroit inner city from a comfortable, white small town life. Throughout the school year, due to cultural differences, Justine does not make any close high school friends. However, Justine is mentored by the mother, Veronica, who is a sculptress. Through Veronica’s encouragement, she keeps a journal of her experiences and gets in touch with the inner artist in herself. For Justine, this is a year of testing and learning her identity. She learns to stand alone and to not get caught in the deluge of drugs which are beginning to decimate her community. This experience is to play a bigger role in the author’s adult life to help give voice to the children who are the descendants of American slavery. “This coming-of-age story is loosely based on the experiences the author went through in the school year 1967 to 1968. This memoir shows the resilient spirit of Black people going through another chapter of turbulence—the Civil Rights era.” Dr. Rosie Milligan, Publisher, Founder of Black Writers on Tour, Publisher, Author.

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 11, 2019