Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2022 Through meticulously researched historical fiction comprised of lyrical prose and free verse, Duncan documents the Tent City movement of Fayette County, Tennessee, in the early 1960s. Focusing on key individuals, she recounts how John McFerren encouraged Black residents to register to vote, resulting in many being fired from their sharecropping jobs, denied medical care and access to local goods and services, and evicted from their homes. Black landowner Shepard Towles purchased large tents and offered his land rent-free to homeless tenants in late 1960, and during the next five years national attention focused on the struggle, culminating in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Palmer’s vibrantly hued acrylic paintings make effective use of patterns and textures. They feature tent city details, protest scenes, individual close-ups, and muted backgrounds that enable the text to be easily read. Some of the illustrations are based on photos by Ernest Withers, and a few of his prints are interspersed. Appended with an epilogue (noting the 2013 weakening of the Voting Rights Act), time line, resources, and bibliography, this is an important contribution to civil rights collections. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.