Synopses & Reviews
An exploration of prejudice and what enables and disables change, set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1964, from the perspectives of a 12-year-old white girl, a young black woman who has left Mississippi for Chicago, and a Freedom Summer volunteer from New York City. As lives collide, each questions what freedom means and the price theyll pay to have it. ******* To Joan Barnes, twelve years old in the summer of 1964, freedom is her birthright. As for Mississippis Negroes, like C.J., who works for Joans family until she leaves for Chicago, freedom was settled by the Civil War, wasnt it? Negroes are no longer slaves. As the child of upper-middle-class Yankee Catholics living in predominantly Baptist Mississippi, where family roots are as deep as those of the towering loblolly pines, Joan simply wants to belong. This need repeatedly puts her at odds with what she knows to be right. And it will take her years to understand that freedom means choices. To C.J. Evans, born to a life of cleaning white folks houses, freedom is the size of a human heart, never bigger or smaller. It comes from within and cant be given or taken away. And, as her waiting-on-heaven Baptist preacher and white-controlled schools have taught her, freedom takes a back seat to staying safewhether shes working as a maid in her Jim Crow Mississippi or as a live-in domestic in Chicago, where the rules are far more subtle. To Zach Bernstein, Jewish University of Chicago law student, freedom is an ever-expanding circle, like a balloon that can be blown up bigger and bigger without bursting. Its in the songs the summer volunteers sing to ward off the fear that they, too, will end up like James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, missing since June 21 and presumed dead. Its in Zachs faith and commitment to tzedakahjustice and righteousness. Its why he has come to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 to teach at the Meridian Freedom School. ***** As America prepares to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summera voter registration drive, but also an historic venture into social justice educationthe moment is ripe for the retrospection offered in THE FOG MACHINE. Readers will find familiar history, such as the 1955 murder of Emmett Till by the Klan for whistling at a white woman and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, alongside depictions of the less familiar, including the Great Migration, Claudette Colvin as the first black to be arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up her bus seat, and the role of northern women during Freedom Summer via Wednesdays in Mississippi.” It is history made all the more poignant as the novels characters relive the June 21, 1964 disappearance of rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner and Pete Seegers announcement during an August 4 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party gathering that their bodies had been discovered. By exploring the age-old problem of prejudice and offering a shared language for talking about civil rights history and race, THE FOG MACHINE is particularly suited to book groups, diversity forums, community reads, high schools, and colleges. Reader benefits include: 1. Ideal for book groups THE FOG MACHINE should be read, heard, and shared,” says Jackie Roberts, Seattles The BookClub. 2. Adult fiction with crossover to young adult Something different and quite special, with so much to offer YA readers,” says Shea Peeples, Teen Librarian, Wescott Library, Eagan, MN. 3. A powerful resource for teachers History through relationshipsthe way young adults learn best,” says Vickie Malone, McComb High social studies teacher. 4. In time for the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, shines a spotlight on the summer that changed America Impeccably researched, including details left out of many history books,” says Debbie Z. Harwell, WEDNESDAYS IN MISSISSIPPI: PROPER LADIES WORKING FOR RADICAL C
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"Thank you for remembering my brother. Great book! Great job!" —Ben Chaney, founder, James Earl Chaney Foundation
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"A literal page turner. Poetic and prophetic, woven from the spectrum of cultural collisions our society offers. The Fog Machine should be read, heard, and shared." —Jackie Roberts, The BookClub
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"Captures essential, often overlooked elements of the Freedom Schools: teachers encouraged to improvise in response to their students and African Americans courageously offering hospitality to young whites from the North. Bravo!" —Staughton Lynd, Freedom School Coordinator, Mississippi Freedom Summer
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"Insightful and highly readable. Written with sensitivity and insight about the nature of prejudice. The Fog Machine will resonate with teens and older readers alike." —John Dittmer, author, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi
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"Susan Follett beautifully weaves the story of main character C.J. Evanss struggles: protecting herself and those she loves while following rules she increasingly suspects can change. Never patronizing, The Fog Machine paints an honest picture of the Civil Rights Movement. Follett understands that those we love shape our worlds." —Sara L. Wicht, senior manager, Teaching and Learning, Teaching Tolerance
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"Eloquently captures your heart and mind from first page to last. A powerful book for use in schools. A must read for anyone interested in truth and justice." —Micki Dickoff, filmmaker, Neshoba: The Price of Freedom
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"Engaging and impeccably researched. Sure to spark discussion of social change in the 1960s as perceived by people of different racial and socioeconomic groups and locales." —Debbie Z. Harwell, author, Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change
Synopsis
This exploration of prejudice and what enables and disables change is set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1964 and told from three very different perspectives. To Joan Barnes, 12 years old in the summer of 1964, freedom is her birthright. As for Mississippi's Negroes, freedom was settled by the Civil War, wasn't it? Negroes are no longer slaves. As the child of upper middle-class Yankee Catholics living in predominantly Baptist Mississippi, where family roots are as deep as those of the towering loblolly pines, Joan simply wants to belong. This need repeatedly puts her at odds with what she knows to be right. And it will take her years to understand that freedom means making choices. To C. J. Evans, born to a life of cleaning white folks houses, freedom is the size of a human heart, never bigger or smaller. It comes from within and cant be given or taken away. And, as her waiting-on-heaven Baptist preacher and white-controlled schools have taught her, freedom takes a back seat to staying safe—whether shes working as a maid to Joan's family in Jim Crow Mississippi or as a live-in domestic in Chicago, where the rules are far more subtle. To Zach Bernstein, Jewish University of Chicago law student, freedom is an ever-expanding circle, like a balloon that can be blown up bigger and bigger without bursting. Its in the songs the summer volunteers sing to ward off the fear that they, too, will end up like James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, missing since June 21 and presumed dead. Its in Zachs faith and commitment to tzedakah—justice and righteousness. Its why he has come to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 to teach at the Meridian Freedom School. As their lives collide, they each question what freedom means and the price theyll pay to have it.
About the Author
Susan Follett grew up in the epicenter of the civil rights movement: Mississippi in the sixties. Her career in corporate technology management took her to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, the Bay Area of California, and Portland, Oregon. But a documentary she saw as a young adult, about the March from Selma to Montgomery, haunted her. Though the march occurred scarcely 100 miles from where she grew up, it was unfamiliar history, and she wanted to know why. She returned to Mississippi time and again for the stories, turning an adult eye on her childhood under Jim Crow, wondering what might be different had she been older or more aware when civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were murdered near her hometown in the summer of 1964. THE FOG MACHINE, which spotlights Mississippi Freedom Summer, is the story of what if.” Ms. Follett now lives in Minnesota with her husband and two children.