A Checkerboard

By Charles Herrick

One very white Seattle boy boards a bus full of black soldiers in Mississippi to begin a journey that will demonstrate the culture-changing power of navet. He does not know he will be the only white soldier on the bus. He will now view Southern black culture through Seattle-blue eyes. And with this first introduction to Postbellum culture, the ride north to the Old South and a new life begins. The year is 1947 going on 1847. His memoir begins: Magnolia scented streams and halcyon tributaries of backwater brown drew me there. A sound in my heart and a yawning sunset that first night told me to stay. I could smell the richness of tradition; broad stripes of goodness twisted around an institutionalized evil to form manners and customs that had been as immovable as a cemetery oak. Simpson would experience friendship and treachery, hard labor and high society. He would know the joy of courting a Southern sweetheart and the loving aegis of an aging matriarch - all to the fading violin of Old Mississippi culture, bathed in the fragrance of white magnolia blossoms on aging, dark wood. Each person in this story is unique and rich in character. From the black preachers who regularly remind Simpson he's got a lot to learn to the Southern lawyer who will do what it takes to protect his beloved Mississippi from losing yet another tradition.An old butler, dignified and loyal to the elegant mistress of the manor - the last of the plantation mansions, takes Simpson under his wing and keeps him aware of the old ways still persisting in the new South. Partnered with Philip, a no-nonsense black housepainter, Simpson chooses not to see good guys and bad guys but rather people of both colors sporting cultural notions that have survived for centuries. A Checkerboard challenges our own notions of the Old South itself. It asks a question with every turn of the page: How would any of us act if we had been born then and there?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1451574711
• ISBN13: 9781451574715
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 532 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 6.0"