February, 21 2025 Hello , Okay, you need to keep a secret. I'm polishing the proposal for my next non-fiction book for teens and will soon be sending it out to prospective agents. Because it's early in the process, I'm only telling
you. Subscribers to my newsletter get a sneak peak, but it's not public information. That's because a book project
can change a lot in the time before it is actually published, which you've seen first hand if you were here for my previous books. If an agent decides to represent the book, the proposal will probably change before it's submitted to editors at publishing houses. If an editor wants to publish it, then I will
actually write the book and it may change substantially from what I'm proposing now. My proposal includes an outline of chapters, each described with a paragraph, plus the first two chapters, which I've fully written. That's enough for an agent and editor to decide if this would be a book they can
sell. If the editor says "yes!" I get a contract and an advance against royalties that I hope to someday earn through book sales. Then I write the first draft of the book. Are you worn out already? Writing and publishing a book takes a lot of time and work by a group of committed professionals. Cross your fingers for this one!
Sneak Peak at My Current Work
In
Anniston, Alabama in the 1930’s when Anne McCarty was growing up laws strictly enforced segregation and they were like a constant chant, a drumbeat in children’s ears.
Anne McCarty, circa 1935. Courtesy
Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, Louisville, Kentucky. The chant Anne heard whether spoken or unspoken was “…don't call colored women ladies, don't call colored men Mister — we sit in the downstairs of the theater, Negroes sit upstairs in the balcony — you drink from this fountain, Negroes use that
fountain — we eat in the dining room, Negroes eat in the kitchen—colored town, our streets— white schools, colored schools— be careful of Negro men on the street — watch out — be careful — don't go near colored town after dark — you sit in the front of the bus, they sit in the back — your place, their place — your world, their world."
"Colored" movie entrance in segregated Anniston, Alabama, photographed by Peter Sekaer
(1936) The segregated society of Anne's small Alabama town in the 1920s and 30s, poisoned her so thoroughly she couldn't imagine any other way
of life. She graduated from college before she ever sat at the same table with a black person. But as a young woman newspaper reporter in Birmingham, Alabama, in
1946, the injustice of segregation gnawed at her conscience. She relocated for work in Louisville, Kentucky, known as one of the more liberal cities of the south, hoping she'd be more at ease. Anne discovered there were white people trying to change things, working for racial justice. She started to see her white privilege, and falling in love with a fellow news reporter on the labor beat, she also became away of the middle class advantages she enjoyed. Anne gradually became convinced of the imperative of Black equality, but it wasn't easy. "I had to come to terms with the fact that my whole society--one that had been very good to me--my family, friends, the people I loved and never stopped loving--were just plain wrong. It's a searingly painful process, but it's not destructive, because once you do it, you are free." Anne married newspaperman Carl Braden in 1948, left her job and worked full-time for racial integration. Their son Jimmy was born in 1951 and daughter Anita in 1953.
Anne Braden with son Jimmy on the Anniston Star society page on a visit home to her parents. Later, when her "strange ideas" became widely known family friends treated her parents as if there had been a death in the family.
From here Anne's story takes a few twists and turns. She was a fascinating woman and I hope I get to write this book about her and you get to read it.The
heart of the story is Anne's journey from her white supremacy upbringing to an anti-racist activist. Anne believed, "...the battle
is and always has been a battle for the hearts and minds of white people in this country. The fight against racism is our issue. It's not something that we're called to help people of color with. We need to become involved with it as if our lives depended on it because really, in truth, they do."
I can't wait for you to read more about Anne. She was ahead of her time as a Southern white woman fighting segregation in the 1940s and 50s and she actively worked for racial equality for 50 years.
Sources Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Radical Justice in the Cold War South, Fosl Catherine, The University Press of
Kentucky, Lexington, KY 2002. The Wall Between, by Anne Braden, The University of Tennessee Press/Knoxville. 2009.
I've a great book to recommend this week, two versions, the adult or young readers edition. This is an older book that I didn't really pay attention to. Now, I wish I would have read it
sooner.
I was really surprised by the engaging writing and this is not a list of events we didn't learn about. The book has offers context and fills not just the holes in our history texts, but the cracks as well. My favorite chapter traces the history of John Brown, of lies a moldering in the grave fame. You probably knew this. John Brown was a passionate abolitionist whose Christian faith called him to an armed revolt to overthrow the institution of slavery. He led an armed raid on a federal armory at Harper's Ferry in 1859, capturing military
hardware, hoping enslaved people would join the uprising. And some did. But the plan failed, the abolitionist overcome by US Marines. John Brown was captured, charged with murder, rebellion and treason, found guilty and hanged to death. American history textbooks put a spin on this that would have John Brown rolling in his
grave. Before 1890, Brown is described as a sane, committed abolitionist. After 1890 and until 1970s, textbooks describe him as insane. In 1970, Brown slowly began to regain his sanity. Newer textbooks published in 2006-7 reversed the trend and he was again a crazed madman.
As the author says, John Brown didn't change after his death, except for a little
moldering. It's the interpretation of his actions that has changed has changed back and forth.
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