June 29, 2018 Hello ,
I've got a
terrific love story for you today, but first, exciting news!
Advanced Review Copies of Standing Up Against
Hate arrived! Known in the biz at ARCs, these are cheap, paperback, uncorrected proofs of the book. They were handed out to librarians this week at the American Library Association Conference, sent out to independent bookstores and to major
reviewers.
A few months ago I mentioned my Advance Review Team and some of you volunteered to read the book ahead of publication and post reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. These ARCs are for
you!
If you haven't already volunteered, reply to this email, let me know you want to join my Advance Review Team. Don't worry, lots more ARCs where these came from!
Amazon and Goodreads reviews are an important way to help people discover the book, and I'd be so grateful for your help with this.
The Power of Love Stands Against Hate Today's featured story is about one African American women the Army Nurse Corps with the extraordinary courage to stand against hate in the most personal way, all day every day.
Elinor Powell fell in love with a German POW and chose him, for better or worse, knowing their interracial marriage was against the law in 29 states.
Elinor Powell (right) with a fellow nurse at POW Camp Florence in Arizona, circa 1944-1945 (Photo courtesy
Smithsonian Magazine and Chris Albert)
Elinor grew up near Boston, in a small town that was integrated. She played with white children, went to school with them and never saw a drinking fountain
labeled “White’s Only”.
When America called for nurses during WWII, Elinor wanted to serve her country.
But the segregated Army Nurse Corps came as quite a shock. Elinor deployed to Camp Florence, near Phoenix, Arizona, where her army uniform did not exempt her from Jim Crow
laws.
Off base, Elinor was refused service at a Woolworth's lunch counter. On base, she suffered further indignity, forced to tend German POWs, soldiers from the army gobbling up territory to expand Hitler’s white supremacist regime.
Some POWs called the black nurses
derogatory names, and the U.S. Army wasn't a whole lot better. There was a shortage of nurses to treat American wounded, but hundreds of black nurses were turned away. Elinor wanted to use her skills to aid men who'd been wounded fighting the Nazis. The Army posted her to the Arizona desert at a hospital for German POWs that rarely needed medical care.
One day, Elinor walked into the mess hall for a meal and was approached by one of the German men. Frederick Albert was a baker in the kitchen and when he say Elinor, it was love at first sight. He walked up
and introduced himself. "You should know my name. I'm the man who's going to marry you."
I imagine Elinor wasn't moved at the moment, she may even have suspected she was the butt of a joke. But Frederick didn't hold with Nazi doctrine. Like many German soldiers, he'd been drafted and forced to serve in the military. And he was a
persistent man.
He volunteered to work at the hospital. He organized baking classes and Elinor attended. She saw that he was kind and he made her feel desirable. Soon they were meeting in secret. Enemies in love.
Their love story is told in a new book by Alexis Clark. It's not all sunshine and roses. Fredrick was caught sneaking our of Elinor's barracks and punished with a beating. Not because he was a POW consorting with an
American, because he was a white man dating a black woman.
According to the publisher, Enemies in Love " paints a tableau of dreams deferred and of love struggling to survive, twenty-five years before the Supreme Court's Loving decision legalizing mixed-race marriage—revealing the surprising possibilities for human connection in one of history’s most violent conflicts." You could understand how this romance might fade away when the war ended and Frederick was shipped home to German. But these two concocted a daring plan. They got pregnant, hoping that would help Frederick get a visa to come back to the states.
Elinor hid her pregnancy until she was discharged from the Army, then went home to her proper family in her proper New
England town. Her mother wasn't happy. Honestly, I can't blame her for thinking her daughter was being duped by a cad who might never return, and if he did, might just want a green card, not a biracial family.
But Frederick was true. He got permission to return to the U.S. and the couple married. Initially, they moved to Germany settling with Frederick's wealthy family where he was
poised to take over his father's engineering company.
But Frederick's mother wouldn't accept her African American daughter-in-law, and treated her rudely. The townspeople didn't take to Elinor, either. Author Alexis Clark told NPR, "People were pointing, taunting her when she was walking down the street. She remembers that a man dropped his groceries when he saw her and the fruit just rolled down the lane. He couldn't believe it! She said she felt like an animal in a zoo. And so the family moved back to New England, where their troubles continued. Frederick had trouble finding jobs because he was German. They had trouble finding a place to live because Elinor was black.
But their love persevered. Eventually, they discovered a place where people had consciously chosen to live in an integrated community. They made a home in South Norwalk, Connecticut, where a diversity of mixed-race couples, Jewish families, gays and other misfits of post-war America were welcome.
Pepperidge Farms
baking company was located in Norwalk, and I knew there was a reason I love those cookies! The company, founded by a woman during the Depression, hired Frederick as a baker. I'm all about food today... You might not know that Pepperidge Farms was started by a mom baking whole grain bread to ease her son's allergies. It's a
subsidiary of Campbell Soup company today, but it's history is a testament to the care, hard work and business savvy of a mom. The founder Margaret Rudkin became the first woman to serve on the Campbell Soup Board of directors. Read more here... It's that time of year, we self-divide into two types of people (who get along famously). Those who love rhubarb pie and everybody else. We get along despite this
voracious disagreement which will never be breached because when they twist their lips in disdain, that means there's all the more for the rest of us.
When June rolled around the first year my husband and I were dating, I discovered he loved rhubarb pie. Luckily, in Spokane, you can sneak into any back ally and steal enough rhubarb stalks for a pie, and nobody will care. Since we were unemployed recent college grads, the price was
right and I made a pie for his birthday. It's been a June tradition for us every since. Another June culinary treat is fresh picked peas. None in my garden this year, but in a nod to the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, here's a bit of trivia and recipe.
Thomas Jefferson was proud of his crop of peas and each year competed with his neighbor as to who's peas would be ready to pick first. With apologies, for the fact it was his slaves who picked the peas, here's a recipe for the delicious tiny morsels from Colonial Williamsburg Publications where you can also find a modern day version.
Peas the Portuguese Way
From Adam’s Luxury and Eve’s
Cookery, 1744. (English version.)
Wash your Peas, cut in some Lettuce, with a Lump of Sugar, some fine Oil, a few Mint Leaves cut small, with Parsley, Onions, Shallots, Garlick, Winter Savory, Nutmeg, Salt, Pepper and a little Broth; put them over the Fire, and when ’tis almost ready, poach some new Eggs in it, making a Place for each Egg to lie in; then cover your Stew pan again, and boil your Eggs with a little Fire upon the
Cover; then slide them into your Dish and serve them.
Until next week...
Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe below anytime with a single mouse click. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary
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