Author Hoy Kersh gives readers a unique picture of the sorrows and joys of growing up on a dirt road in the Jim Crow South in the 1940s and early 1950s, prior to the Civil Rights Movement.Ms. Kersh shares her memories, including those of the historical figures who inspired her Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr. all from a child s perspective. Kersh spent many of her days fending off the Ku Klux Klan, questioning authority, and avoiding her mother s heavy hand, but she still managed to remain compassionate and determined.Kersh s father, born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, birthplace of the blues, was the son of a German sheriff who had a black mistress. The harsh reality of racism first hit Hoy when her grandfather was murdered because of their relationship. The Klan drove Kersh s family out of town, forcing them into Mobile, Alabama, where Hoy spent the remainder of her childhood.
