Homeward
Recently bereaved, 21-year-old Rose Bourdon seeks refuge in her childhood home, finding solace in the arms of her large family and within the walls of her church. It’s 1962 and, though racial violence seethes across the country, the Black community in Parsons, Georgia has kept a fragile peace with their white neighbors. As Rose grieves the past, safe in the cocoon of community, the future intrudes, as members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee come to Parsons to register Black residents to vote, an activity that stirs up latent racism among many in the white community. Although many elders in the community resist the arrival of SNCC and the prospect of rocking the boat, when faced with the angry and brutal response from white neighbors, they begin to see the necessity of activism. With her beliefs challenged, Rose seeks answers in the words of the Civil Rights leaders and purpose in their actions.
Angela Jackson-Brown does an excellent job of sharing Civil Rights history that may be little known to some readers, doing so in an engaging narrative. Homeward is a novel about a young woman learning who and what she can be in an America that places limits on her. The meat of the story is Rose’s involvement with SNCC, and Jackson-Brown does take some time to get there, but it is worth the wait. She provides a good character—young, searching, and smart—to represent Black Southerners and their journey to understand and accept the actions of and reactions to the Civil Rights movement. Accepting the movement’s tenets meant reconciling it with their faith, and Homeward explores this sympathetically and effectively. A worthwhile read.
