Danielle Davis
Ordinary Times: Extraordinary Measures
- Pageturner Press and Media
- 2020
- Taschenbuch
- 690 Seiten
- ISBN 9781649084477
Neomi Jean Hattisburg is a young Negro woman who comes of age during the Jim Crow South of the 1930s. Her father, a railroad porter, and her mother, a domestic worker, instill in Neomi and her brother a strong sense of faith and respect. Neomi, however, finds herself confused because of her appearance, (she looks White), and the way she is treated by Whites and Negroes as a result. Prospects for employment for Negroes is limited pretty much to domestic work or the town factory. It's not the life Neomi wants for herself and she feels rebellious; determined that she is meant for more, but unsure what or how. When she falls in love with Moses Jackson, a young man she never paid attention to when they attended the Negro school together, his focused plans to attend college and become an attorney to work for civil rights helps her gain clarity of her own. They make plans together to further their education and eventually marry. Their plans are interrupted by the outbreak of WWII and the bombing of Pearl Harbor when Moses feels compelled to enlist in the armed services. As he goes through training with the 332nd Airborne Unit, Neomi continues to save toward their dreams, working as a domestic worker in the home of a wealthy white family. One evening, while working late, Neomi is raped by the son of her employers. Overwhelmed by shame and unwarranted guilt, the discovery several weeks later that she is pregnant makes her decide that, in order to avoid bringing shame on Moses and her family, she must leave, and start a new life elsewhere. Knowing that it will be difficult to provide for herself and her child with employment available to Negroes, she decides to pass for White. Taking the savings she'd been putting away for her life with Moses, she makes her way to Chicago to start her new life. In
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