Synopses & Reviews
In the heartland of the United States 150 years ago, where racism and hatred were common, a community decided there could be a different America. Here schools and churches were completely integrated, blacks and whites intermarried, and power and wealth were shared by both races. But for this to happen, the towns citizens had to keep secrets, break the laws of the world outside, and sweep aside fear and embrace hope. In a historical-detective feat, Anna-Lisa Cox uncovers the heartening story of this community that took the road untaken. Beginning in the 1860s, the people of Covert, Michigan, attempted to do what then seemed impossible: love ones neighbor—regardless of skin color—as oneself. Drawing on diaries, oral histories, and contemporary records, Cox gives us intimate glimpses of Coverts people, from William Conner, the Civil War veteran who went on to become Michigan's first black justice of the peace, to Elizabeth Gillard, who, shipwrecked and washed onto Covert's shores, ultimately came to love the unusual community she would call home. In bringing these and other stories of this small town to light, Cox presents a vision of what our nation might have been, and could be.
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"A wonderful book. . . . Stories like this need to get around sooner than later. They are what will save this world."-Pete Seeger
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"This is a revealing look at a small town whose accomplishments have been virtually forgotten."-Booklist
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“An inspirational story of tolerance and decency.”—Diane Robert, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Chicago Tribune
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"Books about race in America are often disturbing and sometimes downright searing. Still, so many exist that they sometimes tend to blend together, canceling one another out. A Stronger Kinship is such an unusual book about race in America that it is unlikely to blend with anything else."-Steve Weinberg, Dallas Morning News
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“Anna-Lisa Cox brings us the remarkable story of this extraordinary place, Covert, Michigan. Intensively researched and well crafted, this inspirational story gives the reader a glimpse of the way the people of one town chose to live their lives, regardless of the social norms of the time.”—Historical Society of Michigan Chronicle Kirkus
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“Cox emphasizes that a widespread problem is not always an inevitable problem. . . . The authors analysis of statistics and written records and the way she uses them to illustrate race relations in Covert, Michigan, contribute greatly to this books high quality.”—Michigan Historical Review Historical Society of Michigan
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“Readers of A Stronger Kinship will enjoy its prose, admire its characters, and very likely agree with Cox that the history of this small Michigan town teaches us about hope and the possibility for racial reconciliation in our own time.”—Frank Towers, Chicago Tribune Frank Towers
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“A gladdening, unsentimental chronicle of a Midwestern town that practiced racial equality against all late 19th-century odds.”—Kirkus Reviews Diane Roberts - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About the Author
Anna-Lisa Cox is the recipient of numerous awards for her research, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Younger Scholars Award, a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship, and a Pew Younger Scholars Fellowship.