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The Color of Love: A Mother's Choice in the Jim Crow Southby Gene Cheek
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Nine years after the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and only a year before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a judge in the Forsyth County Courthouse of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, wrenched twelve-year-old Gene Cheek from the security of his mother's devotion. Here is a true story of love in a time afflicted by hatred, ignorance, and racism. At its core, this is a frank account of a love affair between a white woman and a black man that took mother from son and split a family forever. In the early 1960s, the city of Winston-Salem struggled under the strict edicts of segregation, setting the tone of division that would plague Gene Cheek's life. Raised by his alcoholic father and his earnestly loving mother, Gene learned about the power of hatred and the strength of love. Yet when his mother fell in love with Cornelius Tucker, an African-American man, and became pregnant with Tucker's child, their union was seen as morally and lawfully unfit. The court forced the parents to choose between the mixed-race infant and Gene. From a distance of more than forty years, Gene Cheek recounts a life of constant struggle with his biological father. Briefly that tension dissolved with the warm guidance of Cornelius Tucker - but that period of peace would soon end. The Color of Love is Gene Cheek's story told in his singularly honest voice. Its sincerity and truth resonate with a plea for tolerance, and the irrevocable nature of the decisions and emotions of modern life. Review:"Cheek spins a mesmerizing yarn, told from a little boy's viewpoint, of growing up poor and white in 1950s North Carolina, surrounded by generations of wife-beating alcoholics. Through plain yet descriptive language seasoned with wry, biting adjectives, he ably conveys the sights, sounds and feelings of his surroundings. His musings are funny and hopeful, and Cheek shapes his childhood voice to suit stories of his tense relationship with his violent, alcoholic father; his mother's endless tolerance and denial; and his admiration for his maternal grandmother, who taught him to 'be full of love, not hate.' His child's-eye reportage captures the intricacies of his mother's postmarital relationship with Tuck, a strong, kind and gentle black man Cheek had met years earlier, and their secret life as an interracial family. The secret was revealed only after Cheek's mother had Tuck's baby, which enraged her family enough for them to have a court declare her an unfit mother. When the judge ordered her to give up one of the children, the author took the choice out of his mother's hands when he elected to leave the family and become a ward of the state, turning the formerly optimistic young man against the rest of his family. In an epilogue written in his adult voice, Cheek explains that his motivation for writing the book was vengeance, which in the process of writing turned to understanding and, finally, forgiveness." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Cheek has a truly troubling tale to tell...[his] pain is evident throughout...a doleful debut."--Kirkus Reviews "...an honest look at the lasting pain caused by injustice and hence merits consideration by public libraries."--Library Journal Review:"...an honest look at the lasting pain caused by injustice and hence merits consideration by public libraries."--Library Journal Synopsis:The true story of a young man whose life and family were torn apart by a decision no mother should have to make.
About the AuthorGene Cheek is a blue-collar son of the South, born on March 2, 1951 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has lived an unremarkable life with the exception of his children, grandchildren and his own peculiar childhood. This is his first book. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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