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South of Little Rock
Next Generation Indie Book Award for Regional Fiction (US and Canada)
National Indie Excellence Award for Regional Fiction (Southeast)
Independent Publishers IPPY Bronze Medal for Regional Fiction (South)
Readers' Favorite Silver Medal for Social Issues Fiction
A powerful story of race, family, and small town life in the South in the 1950sWhen the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis sends shock wavesacross the nation in 1957, widower Sam Tate, a white merchant and councilman with two young children, faces new questions of conscience, belief, and child-rearing in tiny Unionville, Arkansas. Becky Reeves, an unmarried northerner who has come south to teach while hiding a secret past, must decide how to approach current events in her seventh-grade class without getting fired. Gran Tate, a strong-willed woman who likes quilting and helping raise her grandchildren, dislikes blacks and Yankees and fears she may lose everything she holds dear. Life gets more complicated for all of them when Governor Faubus calls out the National Guard to stop the integration of Central High, President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce it, and Unionville editor Preston Upshaw fans the flames of hatred to sell newspapers.
Amid cross burnings, White Citizens' Council meetings, and fervent speculating and sermonizing by townsfolk, white and black, at home, work, and church, Sam questions old ways, Gran clings to tradition, and Becky angers parents and school officials. The unrest brings Sam and Becky together then combines with Becky's secret to stand between them in an emotional journey through a world where love and courage struggle against fear and hate.
Amid cross burnings, White Citizens' Council meetings, and fervent speculating and sermonizing by townsfolk, white and black, at home, work, and church, Sam questions old ways, Gran clings to tradition, and Becky angers parents and school officials. The unrest brings Sam and Becky together then combines with Becky's secret to stand between them in an emotional journey through a world where love and courage struggle against fear and hate.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
361 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 23, 2018
About the author
George Rollie Adams
7 books7 followersGeorge Rollie Adams is an educator, historian, and former museum director now writing historical fiction about small town and family life and social issues still relevant today.
A native of southern Arkansas, Adams holds two degrees in social science education and a doctorate in American history and has taught in high school and college. He has researched and written about National Historic Landmarks for the National Park Service, managed professional training programs for the American Association for State and Local History, and directed the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Louisiana State Museum, and Strong National Museum of Play.
His military biography, General William S. Harney: Prince of Dragoons, was a finalist for the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Book Award, and he founded and served as editor in chief of the American Journal of Play, the first interdisciplinary magazine devoted solely to the study of play.
Adams lives in New York’s beautiful Finger Lakes region, and because he comes from a family of quilters, quilting figures prominently in his work. He and his wife have three adopted daughters, each from a different part of the world.
A native of southern Arkansas, Adams holds two degrees in social science education and a doctorate in American history and has taught in high school and college. He has researched and written about National Historic Landmarks for the National Park Service, managed professional training programs for the American Association for State and Local History, and directed the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Louisiana State Museum, and Strong National Museum of Play.
His military biography, General William S. Harney: Prince of Dragoons, was a finalist for the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Book Award, and he founded and served as editor in chief of the American Journal of Play, the first interdisciplinary magazine devoted solely to the study of play.
Adams lives in New York’s beautiful Finger Lakes region, and because he comes from a family of quilters, quilting figures prominently in his work. He and his wife have three adopted daughters, each from a different part of the world.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 25, 2019
Note: There is a spoiler in the paragraph near the end about Mary Jane.
While I greatly respect what I believe Adams was aiming for in _South of Little Rock_, I have concerns about the story that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.
What I did enjoy: First, the principles being upheld in this book. _South of Little Rock_ tells the story of a small Arkansas town in 1957 firmly entrenched in Jim Crow segregation. One particular White business owner loves baseball, and the only team in town is a Black team. He strikes up conversation regularly with a Black businessman who comes in to buy baseball equipment, and eventually (well, on the first page, actually) the White man and his son join the team for a few practices. Meanwhile, the new 7th grade teacher (who happens to be the son’s teacher) helps the class learn about social studies and current events in a new and engaging way, and it causes quite an uproar. Throw in an instigating new newspaper owner, a racist preacher, and a cast of local characters, and it’s an engaging story as the town deals with overtly racist actions unlike any they’ve experienced before. This leads to the second thing I really enjoyed about this book: when the author dove in on creating a character, he generally did this very well. The people in this town are personable (sweet, funny, grouchy, etc.) but not flat. Most of them feel quite real, and are probably the book’s greatest strength. The quilting and small town Friday night football are genuine and delightful, as well.
Here are my two big concerns with this book. First, the baseline premise doesn’t hold water against the reality of millions of Black and White people across the South. Second, it is, at its heart, a book about how White men dealt with the question of race (while looking like it’s a book about how a mixed race community does).
Hear me out. First, the baseline premise is that Sam, a White store owner and city council member, strikes up baseball conversations with Leon, a Black man who owns the dry cleaners. They talk about baseball at Sam’s store (believable), on the street (both businessmen, but one Black and one White in 1957 Arkansas… slightly possible), and in the bank (not a chance). Leon invites Sam to come play with the Black team (nope), and Sam doesn’t think anyone will notice or think it’s a big deal if they do (are you kidding me?). In the climate of 1950’s name-your-Southern-state, but particularly Arkansas with what was going on with the fight over education, there is no way that a White man wouldn’t be paying attention to race. There is no way that a Black man would be inviting a White man to come play ball with the Black team. In this climate, there was no space for this kind of public relationship to occur, and even in private, Black people still had to defer to the power structure that ruled and threatened their livelihoods and lives and that of their families and friends. The baseline premise of this novel simply doesn’t hold water with history in general.
If you know your Civil Rights history, in 1960 (only three years in real life after this fictional novel) it was the White participants of the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit ins and White Freedom Riders who worked to integrate interstate bussing who evoked the most ire and took the worst beatings from angry White mobs. White people knew well and good not to cross those lines unless they were willing to pay in blood. Black troublemakers were lynched and drowned in rivers. And while less known, families of Black Civil Rights organizers were regularly threatened, fired, and harmed as a way to keep the Black community in line. This is how the South maintained White power for so long. I do not believe Sam and Leon’s story, which throws into doubt all the things that follow from it. (And if someone wants to point to a couple of instances in history when this did happen, because it probably did, then I would say that at the very least equal time needed to be given to how the Black community responded to this boundary-breaking move by Leon. It simply does not make sense to me to premise the book on two men doing something earth shattering and then acting like it’s nothing.)
Second, I believe that this is, at its heart, a book about how White men dealt with the question of race. At face value, it seems that this book offers a strong perspective by and about the Black community. We know about their baseball team and see them at practice; we hear their preacher; we get to know Leon, a leader and businessman. We are privy to Leon and the preacher talking about the cross burnings and violence, and we see groups of men gather to protect the preacher. What’s more telling is what’s missing: we don’t see inside a classroom in a book about integrating schools. We don’t hear a conversation (ever) occurring within a house, either between spouses or between generations (older or younger… and we get both of those in Sam’s house and with other students). We don’t get Black men gathered to socialize over a ball game (or anything else). We don’t have the Black community’s version of city council, except in response to White violence. The one and only thing the Black community exists for, beyond the establishing scenes of the baseball team, is to deal with White racist actions. The result is flat and one-sided, particularly because in reality… in history… the Black community was divided about how to respond. Every Black person was not unified in the idea that they should sit around and let White law enforcement solve it. Just sitting on the pastor’s porch with guns would likely NOT have been the only discussed response. Dr. King, SNCC, the SCLC, and others had to convince people that nonviolence was the most effective tool. Now, the Black community wasn’t stupid. They would have known what would happen if they were violent. But that the conversation wasn’t even recognized in this novel dumbs down history and lessens the value of those whose voices made that difference. This is why I think the book is about White people and racism, despite a face-value involvement of the town’s Black community. (Another way of saying this is that if there was a Bechdel test for representation of Black people in fiction, this book likely would not pass.)
I’m going long here, but I think these things matter. There’s one language concern that I had a serious issue with. Repeatedly, Adams has his White characters refer to “integration” and to people who want Black students to attend White schools as “integrationists.” This is not the typical language of the 1950’s. White people talked about “desegregation.” I have never encountered the word “integrationist” in dozens of books, multitudes of articles, additional documentaries, and more conversations than I can count, including speaking with a person who has been doing Civil Rights Era education for 40 years. In an effort to check myself, I spoke with a college professor who teaches the 2 semester African American survey course at his school and he did inform me that “integrationist” was a term used by Southern politicians, newspaper people, and White Citizen Councils. He told me that it was a term meant to inflame and create barriers after the Brown decision. But it was not likely used by random households, or if it was, it told a VERY one-sided story that does not come through to a modern reader without additional context that was not provided in this book. (“Integrationist” sounds rather complimentary, after all, to the modern ear, doesn’t it?) White people referred to Black people (and their allies) who fought for their rights as “damn Commies,” troublemakers, and a host of other derogatory terms. This is not clear.
There was one small detail that I absolutely loved. Mary Jane, Sam’s 5 year old daughter, makes repeated comments about missing her mother, who died when she was born. ***SPOILER CUT*** When her grandmother is ill, she asks if Gran is going to die, too. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and true. Mostly, as would have happened in the 1950’s, she is loved but her cares are brushed aside. At the end of the story, Gran is gone and she is about to be ripped from her third mother-figure (the Black housekeeper). ***END SPOILER CUT*** I’d give anything to have a sequel with Mary Jane’s teenage years in the 1960’s. I think she would have been a rebel, and everyone would have wondered why a girl from “such a good family” was “one of those damn hippies.”
I think this novel is missing important things, and that what’s missing matters. What is here is important and told well, but when we (especially White people) think that this is the story, we ignore some of the messy, true, complicated, and necessary history that we must engage. I don’t think this book is wrong about how White people responded to integration/desegregation, but I think it’s limited in its full telling, and I think that’s a shame. The writing itself is worth reading, but personally think that the story offers less than a full perspective on what we know the story to be.
While I greatly respect what I believe Adams was aiming for in _South of Little Rock_, I have concerns about the story that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.
What I did enjoy: First, the principles being upheld in this book. _South of Little Rock_ tells the story of a small Arkansas town in 1957 firmly entrenched in Jim Crow segregation. One particular White business owner loves baseball, and the only team in town is a Black team. He strikes up conversation regularly with a Black businessman who comes in to buy baseball equipment, and eventually (well, on the first page, actually) the White man and his son join the team for a few practices. Meanwhile, the new 7th grade teacher (who happens to be the son’s teacher) helps the class learn about social studies and current events in a new and engaging way, and it causes quite an uproar. Throw in an instigating new newspaper owner, a racist preacher, and a cast of local characters, and it’s an engaging story as the town deals with overtly racist actions unlike any they’ve experienced before. This leads to the second thing I really enjoyed about this book: when the author dove in on creating a character, he generally did this very well. The people in this town are personable (sweet, funny, grouchy, etc.) but not flat. Most of them feel quite real, and are probably the book’s greatest strength. The quilting and small town Friday night football are genuine and delightful, as well.
Here are my two big concerns with this book. First, the baseline premise doesn’t hold water against the reality of millions of Black and White people across the South. Second, it is, at its heart, a book about how White men dealt with the question of race (while looking like it’s a book about how a mixed race community does).
Hear me out. First, the baseline premise is that Sam, a White store owner and city council member, strikes up baseball conversations with Leon, a Black man who owns the dry cleaners. They talk about baseball at Sam’s store (believable), on the street (both businessmen, but one Black and one White in 1957 Arkansas… slightly possible), and in the bank (not a chance). Leon invites Sam to come play with the Black team (nope), and Sam doesn’t think anyone will notice or think it’s a big deal if they do (are you kidding me?). In the climate of 1950’s name-your-Southern-state, but particularly Arkansas with what was going on with the fight over education, there is no way that a White man wouldn’t be paying attention to race. There is no way that a Black man would be inviting a White man to come play ball with the Black team. In this climate, there was no space for this kind of public relationship to occur, and even in private, Black people still had to defer to the power structure that ruled and threatened their livelihoods and lives and that of their families and friends. The baseline premise of this novel simply doesn’t hold water with history in general.
If you know your Civil Rights history, in 1960 (only three years in real life after this fictional novel) it was the White participants of the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit ins and White Freedom Riders who worked to integrate interstate bussing who evoked the most ire and took the worst beatings from angry White mobs. White people knew well and good not to cross those lines unless they were willing to pay in blood. Black troublemakers were lynched and drowned in rivers. And while less known, families of Black Civil Rights organizers were regularly threatened, fired, and harmed as a way to keep the Black community in line. This is how the South maintained White power for so long. I do not believe Sam and Leon’s story, which throws into doubt all the things that follow from it. (And if someone wants to point to a couple of instances in history when this did happen, because it probably did, then I would say that at the very least equal time needed to be given to how the Black community responded to this boundary-breaking move by Leon. It simply does not make sense to me to premise the book on two men doing something earth shattering and then acting like it’s nothing.)
Second, I believe that this is, at its heart, a book about how White men dealt with the question of race. At face value, it seems that this book offers a strong perspective by and about the Black community. We know about their baseball team and see them at practice; we hear their preacher; we get to know Leon, a leader and businessman. We are privy to Leon and the preacher talking about the cross burnings and violence, and we see groups of men gather to protect the preacher. What’s more telling is what’s missing: we don’t see inside a classroom in a book about integrating schools. We don’t hear a conversation (ever) occurring within a house, either between spouses or between generations (older or younger… and we get both of those in Sam’s house and with other students). We don’t get Black men gathered to socialize over a ball game (or anything else). We don’t have the Black community’s version of city council, except in response to White violence. The one and only thing the Black community exists for, beyond the establishing scenes of the baseball team, is to deal with White racist actions. The result is flat and one-sided, particularly because in reality… in history… the Black community was divided about how to respond. Every Black person was not unified in the idea that they should sit around and let White law enforcement solve it. Just sitting on the pastor’s porch with guns would likely NOT have been the only discussed response. Dr. King, SNCC, the SCLC, and others had to convince people that nonviolence was the most effective tool. Now, the Black community wasn’t stupid. They would have known what would happen if they were violent. But that the conversation wasn’t even recognized in this novel dumbs down history and lessens the value of those whose voices made that difference. This is why I think the book is about White people and racism, despite a face-value involvement of the town’s Black community. (Another way of saying this is that if there was a Bechdel test for representation of Black people in fiction, this book likely would not pass.)
I’m going long here, but I think these things matter. There’s one language concern that I had a serious issue with. Repeatedly, Adams has his White characters refer to “integration” and to people who want Black students to attend White schools as “integrationists.” This is not the typical language of the 1950’s. White people talked about “desegregation.” I have never encountered the word “integrationist” in dozens of books, multitudes of articles, additional documentaries, and more conversations than I can count, including speaking with a person who has been doing Civil Rights Era education for 40 years. In an effort to check myself, I spoke with a college professor who teaches the 2 semester African American survey course at his school and he did inform me that “integrationist” was a term used by Southern politicians, newspaper people, and White Citizen Councils. He told me that it was a term meant to inflame and create barriers after the Brown decision. But it was not likely used by random households, or if it was, it told a VERY one-sided story that does not come through to a modern reader without additional context that was not provided in this book. (“Integrationist” sounds rather complimentary, after all, to the modern ear, doesn’t it?) White people referred to Black people (and their allies) who fought for their rights as “damn Commies,” troublemakers, and a host of other derogatory terms. This is not clear.
There was one small detail that I absolutely loved. Mary Jane, Sam’s 5 year old daughter, makes repeated comments about missing her mother, who died when she was born. ***SPOILER CUT*** When her grandmother is ill, she asks if Gran is going to die, too. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and true. Mostly, as would have happened in the 1950’s, she is loved but her cares are brushed aside. At the end of the story, Gran is gone and she is about to be ripped from her third mother-figure (the Black housekeeper). ***END SPOILER CUT*** I’d give anything to have a sequel with Mary Jane’s teenage years in the 1960’s. I think she would have been a rebel, and everyone would have wondered why a girl from “such a good family” was “one of those damn hippies.”
I think this novel is missing important things, and that what’s missing matters. What is here is important and told well, but when we (especially White people) think that this is the story, we ignore some of the messy, true, complicated, and necessary history that we must engage. I don’t think this book is wrong about how White people responded to integration/desegregation, but I think it’s limited in its full telling, and I think that’s a shame. The writing itself is worth reading, but personally think that the story offers less than a full perspective on what we know the story to be.
September 15, 2019
Centered in the south in the 1950’s this book brings to us the deep entrenchment of ideologies and way of life back then. With the backdrop of the Central High desegregation crisis in the headlines and just up the road, the little town of Unionville is rocked and must decide where it stands with its values. So many things change in the lives of the characters, and they each have to make personal decisions on how they will continue to live their lives.
I really resonated with Becky Reeves, the school teacher. I think her personal morals and beliefs helped give her strength in this rocky time and she had tough fights and still held her ground. The writing and the research for this book was excellent. The characters were multi-dimensional and flawed just like real people and I was able to picture myself in this little town as it all is happening.
I really resonated with Becky Reeves, the school teacher. I think her personal morals and beliefs helped give her strength in this rocky time and she had tough fights and still held her ground. The writing and the research for this book was excellent. The characters were multi-dimensional and flawed just like real people and I was able to picture myself in this little town as it all is happening.
March 12, 2021
Very informative and disturbing. A lot of "Christians" acting in some very unChristian ways. It make clear just how prevalent the thinking was even among the truly well meaning people. They didn' know any better.
September 7, 2019
‘White Boy Suspended at Central High after Striking Negro’ – El Dorado Daily News
New York author George Rollie Adams earned degrees in history and education, served as a public school teacher, and is president of Strong National Museum of Play- the first collection-based museum devoted to the critical role of play in learning and human development. His published books included NASHVILLE, GENERAL WILLAIM S HARNEY: PRINCE OF DRAGOIONS, ORDINARY PEOPLE AND EVERYDAY LIFE, and this exceptional book – SOUTH OF LITTLE ROCK.
The tenor of the times has created a need for reading this excellent book about our country’s racial issues. Daily in the media – press, television, social media, film – we encounter tales of racial injustice that appear to either be mounting or are now knowledge more accessible. Whatever the reason, looking back at our history in the manner that George invites us to examine is important to us all. The era of the 1950s capsulizes our history and our flaws, and in doing so brings to our attention the need for change, now!
How George has created this important educational (as well as beautifully written) book is summarized as follows: ’When the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis sends shock waves across the nation in 1957, widower Sam Tate, a white merchant and councilman with two young children, faces new questions of conscience, belief, and child-rearing in tiny Unionville, Arkansas. Becky Reeves, an unmarried northerner who has come south to teach while hiding a secret past, must decide how to approach current events in her seventh-grade class without getting fired. Gran Tate, a strong-willed woman who likes quilting and helping raise her grandchildren, dislikes blacks and Yankees and fears she may lose everything she holds dear. Life gets more complicated for all of them when Governor Faubus calls out the National Guard to stop the integration of Central High, President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce it, and Unionville editor Preston Upshaw fans the flames of hatred to sell newspapers. Amid cross burnings, White Citizens' Council meetings, and fervent speculating and sermonizing by townsfolk (white and black) at home, work, and church, Sam questions old ways, Gran clings to tradition, and Becky angers parents and school officials. The unrest brings Sam and Becky together then combines with Becky's secret to stand between them in an emotional journey through a world where love and courage struggle against fear and hate.’
Beautifully researched and impressively delivered, this novel format of our history is an exceptionally fine book with a timely message. Very Highly Recommended.
New York author George Rollie Adams earned degrees in history and education, served as a public school teacher, and is president of Strong National Museum of Play- the first collection-based museum devoted to the critical role of play in learning and human development. His published books included NASHVILLE, GENERAL WILLAIM S HARNEY: PRINCE OF DRAGOIONS, ORDINARY PEOPLE AND EVERYDAY LIFE, and this exceptional book – SOUTH OF LITTLE ROCK.
The tenor of the times has created a need for reading this excellent book about our country’s racial issues. Daily in the media – press, television, social media, film – we encounter tales of racial injustice that appear to either be mounting or are now knowledge more accessible. Whatever the reason, looking back at our history in the manner that George invites us to examine is important to us all. The era of the 1950s capsulizes our history and our flaws, and in doing so brings to our attention the need for change, now!
How George has created this important educational (as well as beautifully written) book is summarized as follows: ’When the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis sends shock waves across the nation in 1957, widower Sam Tate, a white merchant and councilman with two young children, faces new questions of conscience, belief, and child-rearing in tiny Unionville, Arkansas. Becky Reeves, an unmarried northerner who has come south to teach while hiding a secret past, must decide how to approach current events in her seventh-grade class without getting fired. Gran Tate, a strong-willed woman who likes quilting and helping raise her grandchildren, dislikes blacks and Yankees and fears she may lose everything she holds dear. Life gets more complicated for all of them when Governor Faubus calls out the National Guard to stop the integration of Central High, President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce it, and Unionville editor Preston Upshaw fans the flames of hatred to sell newspapers. Amid cross burnings, White Citizens' Council meetings, and fervent speculating and sermonizing by townsfolk (white and black) at home, work, and church, Sam questions old ways, Gran clings to tradition, and Becky angers parents and school officials. The unrest brings Sam and Becky together then combines with Becky's secret to stand between them in an emotional journey through a world where love and courage struggle against fear and hate.’
Beautifully researched and impressively delivered, this novel format of our history is an exceptionally fine book with a timely message. Very Highly Recommended.
June 29, 2019
Historians are trained to be storytellers; novelists are born with a gift. In George Rollie Adams' debut novel "South of Little Rock," his historian's training meld perfectly with his ability to create a compelling and well-crafted read. Adams' book examines a critical time in American social and cultural history and layers it with a story of a small town grappling with change and tradition. Just three years after the Supreme Court landmark Brown v the Board of Education, American communities were finding ways to integrate their schools. For citizens of Unionville, Arkansas, this meant embracing their faith, abandoning their Southern mindset, and being open to change...which isn't easy under any circumstance. In this novel, we meet three generations: the grandparents who are rooted in their past; their children who may or may not be willing to see a new way; and their grandchildren who are poised to create a new culture with different mores and expectations. Adams' characters are strong and invite both the readers' hearts and anger. Adams' carefully chosen words painted a vivid portrait of small town America - with its love for baseball and high school sports and church on Sunday - and the people who are living in a dynamic time. Unionville is a complex community, with a slanted press and generational mix. At the heart of this story is every person's right to education. Settle back with a lemonade on your porch and read on.
May 26, 2019
This finely crafted debut novel has all the best elements of a great summer read. The characters are three - dimensional, the writing is superb, and the plotting well-paced as it builds up to the suspenseful climax. In the genre of historical fiction, the book is framed by the events surrounding the integration of Central High in Little Rock in 1957. As a historian, I greatly appreciated how the author deftly worked historical facts into the novel. The book does a terrific job of capturing that era of history. Popular culture, mannerisms, and material culture help the reader to feel as if they are there.
The book is set south of Little Rock, hence the title, in Unionville, a town that straddles the border of Louisiana and Arkansas. Here the people, black and white, live with the dead hand of history and centuries of oppression. Although most people are content to live in the segregated caste system that dominated the South, a new generation embodied in the protagonist Sam Tate, his son Billie, and the new school teacher, Becky Reeves, seek to change that. They face reactionary forces, including members of their own family, whose resistance to change inevitably leads to conflict, sometimes violent conflict. The resolution of the crisis will leave readers wanting more. Which is good news since I believe the author is working on a sequel.
The book is set south of Little Rock, hence the title, in Unionville, a town that straddles the border of Louisiana and Arkansas. Here the people, black and white, live with the dead hand of history and centuries of oppression. Although most people are content to live in the segregated caste system that dominated the South, a new generation embodied in the protagonist Sam Tate, his son Billie, and the new school teacher, Becky Reeves, seek to change that. They face reactionary forces, including members of their own family, whose resistance to change inevitably leads to conflict, sometimes violent conflict. The resolution of the crisis will leave readers wanting more. Which is good news since I believe the author is working on a sequel.
October 2, 2023
South of Little Rock, by George Rollie Adams, is a well-told (seemingly very authentic) deep dive into the twisted psyches of white segregationists in a small Arkansas town after Brown vs. Board of Education has ruled an end to their segregated schools. The Arkansas Governor has enlisted the National Guard to resist integration in nearby Little Rock, President Eisenhower has sent federal troops to enforce the integration order, and white residents of “Unionville” react to the changes they see coming with fear and scorn. The plot is multifaceted, with lots of interesting characters, and through these characters, Adams takes the reader straight back to a way of thinking that is painful and repugnant, courageously choosing to create a protagonist who is fundamentally decent, but not outright heroic. He’s a work in progress, you might say, which strikes as realistic, given that his mother is one of the most hateful characters in the book. (I despised that woman!) I won’t get too much into the plot, but will simply say that South of Little Rock is a great and engrossing story that I highly recommend. It's a page turner, important history, and also a reminder that for all our current problems and segments of the population who still hold on to this particular brand of hatred, we really have come a long way. And thank God for it.
June 7, 2019
Mystery, Romance, and Racial Drama
This book proved too close to home for a native of a small southern town, bringing up memories that roused me in the middle of the night to find out who burned those crosses and what happened to each of the characters. Straddling the state line of Arkansas and Louisiana, the setting for South of Little Rock, a family drama with a romantic twist, allows the author to use southern dialog to reveal both sides of the tense racial divide while loading the bases with appealing baseball, football and quilting facts of the 1950s. As a retired teacher and historian, I especially recommend this book of historical fiction to high school teachers who are looking for a compelling classroom mystery that illustrates the Little Rock integration crisis. South of Little Rock leaves today’s readers with thought provoking questions.
This book proved too close to home for a native of a small southern town, bringing up memories that roused me in the middle of the night to find out who burned those crosses and what happened to each of the characters. Straddling the state line of Arkansas and Louisiana, the setting for South of Little Rock, a family drama with a romantic twist, allows the author to use southern dialog to reveal both sides of the tense racial divide while loading the bases with appealing baseball, football and quilting facts of the 1950s. As a retired teacher and historian, I especially recommend this book of historical fiction to high school teachers who are looking for a compelling classroom mystery that illustrates the Little Rock integration crisis. South of Little Rock leaves today’s readers with thought provoking questions.
June 8, 2019
South of Little Rock is an excellent read.
In 1957, the citizens of a fictional small town in Arkansas follow the events as Central High School, in nearby Little Rock, is integrated. Black students begin to exercise their right to equal education, while members of the town react...each from their own unique perspective. Woven through this real life event are a look at small town life including a mystery, a love story, and plenty of enticing local flavor.
The tight-knit community of Unionville comes together around people’s varied passions; football, baseball, quilting, good food and wonderful folks taking care of each other.
It’s easy to bring these authentically written characters into your heart and, if guided tours of imaginary towns become a reality, I would personally love to meet and spend time with many of them.
In 1957, the citizens of a fictional small town in Arkansas follow the events as Central High School, in nearby Little Rock, is integrated. Black students begin to exercise their right to equal education, while members of the town react...each from their own unique perspective. Woven through this real life event are a look at small town life including a mystery, a love story, and plenty of enticing local flavor.
The tight-knit community of Unionville comes together around people’s varied passions; football, baseball, quilting, good food and wonderful folks taking care of each other.
It’s easy to bring these authentically written characters into your heart and, if guided tours of imaginary towns become a reality, I would personally love to meet and spend time with many of them.
September 6, 2019
You will find South of Little Rock revealing, yet delicately written. George Rollie Adams spins a tale about a white man and his children who interacts with blacks when it wasn’t acceptable. Sam Tate realizes that skin color has no value in a person’s worth and teaches his son and daughter this lesson against his mother’s belief.
Traditions and prejudging attitudes often rein in small towns and change is seldom wanted. South of Little Rock by George Rollie Adams may be fictional but it reads like a history story that could have happened in a small town by you. Having to change what your family taught you and community is hard, especially about a group of people. The misuse of news and the twist the editor had on his articles to stir up strife to sell more papers was awful, but I felt the author hit that nail on the head. Well worth the read.
Traditions and prejudging attitudes often rein in small towns and change is seldom wanted. South of Little Rock by George Rollie Adams may be fictional but it reads like a history story that could have happened in a small town by you. Having to change what your family taught you and community is hard, especially about a group of people. The misuse of news and the twist the editor had on his articles to stir up strife to sell more papers was awful, but I felt the author hit that nail on the head. Well worth the read.
March 18, 2022
This book made me think. Truly think about what it would've been like to live in the South during school integration. It's easy to assume all the whites acted the same and this novel tells the story of those tensions and varying opinions - those who instigated hatred and those who spoke against it (and often faced backlash themselves).
The author frequently contrasted the sermons of the pastors of two white churches and the black church to show how the Bible was used to encourage unity, love, and endurance or wrongly interpreted by one of the white pastors to ignite the chaos. College and high school sports (though played only by the whites) were portrayed as calming events to the chaos and hatred. The final sampler quilt was a touching element. The book was a slow but well-writtenread. One that furthered my understanding about the events of that era.
The author frequently contrasted the sermons of the pastors of two white churches and the black church to show how the Bible was used to encourage unity, love, and endurance or wrongly interpreted by one of the white pastors to ignite the chaos. College and high school sports (though played only by the whites) were portrayed as calming events to the chaos and hatred. The final sampler quilt was a touching element. The book was a slow but well-writtenread. One that furthered my understanding about the events of that era.
July 24, 2019
A great story written about the south in 1957. A story about segregation, integration and emotions from both sides. A love story that challenges a man to come to terms with his own thoughts on integration and stand up for his beliefs. I feel issues written in this story,sadly, are still relevant for today. However the author shows us that change can and will happen in time.
December 31, 2021
Splendid
This was a wonderful novel that was difficult to put down. The characters had a feel as if you knew them or someone like them. I found myself seeing parallels between the time the novel was set in and the events of today. I am hoping for a sequel.
This was a wonderful novel that was difficult to put down. The characters had a feel as if you knew them or someone like them. I found myself seeing parallels between the time the novel was set in and the events of today. I am hoping for a sequel.
July 21, 2019
Excellent fictional story with real historical data!
June 30, 2019
This fascinating and historically valid tale reminds us of an important slice of American life worthy of review and continued discussion. The author reels us in as, from his own experience, he tells the tale of a small Southern town South of Little Rock when its people respond to the forced integration of black students in a nearby public high school in the late 1950’s. The story begins on a bold note and builds slowly, allowing the reader time to get to know main characters. Tensions rise as a complicated web of raw emotions raise havoc on this typical small Southern community. The award-winning book helps to recall the long and complicated road America has been on, and remains on, along the path to justice and fairness for all members of the community.
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