Thursday, August 27, 2009

5 Interracial Books


Another "5-a-Day"!
Last night I watched "Prom Night in Mississippi", a documentary about Morgan Freeman's efforts to integrate prom in the small Mississippi town of Charleston. Since 1970 the school has held two proms: one for white students and one for black students. While it's amazing to think that such segregation is still occurring, the film wasn't as effecting to me as it was to many reviewers. I guess my qualm was, sure, blacks & whites went to the dance together, but from the looks of it they really didn't interact much with each other. And I'm sure there had to be more, but only one interracial couple was shown. The movie got me thinking about the books I've read in which an interracial relationship played an important role. They are:

* Desire in the Sun by Karen Robards
* Holes by Louis Sachar
* Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
* If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
* Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

While these are all fictional, they do accurately portray the complexities of these relationships. Check one out today!

1 comment:

Jodi said...

Full disclosure: Desire in the Sun is a historical romance (aka smut) novel, but it's one of my favorites of all time! Ashley was even sweet enough to find an original hard-cover copy of it since my paperback is getting a bit worn from multiple readings!