Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County

This is the overarching theme of the book. The legacy of racism in America, of course, dates back to slavery and the country’s founding. Even after emancipation, blacks and whites received different treatment under the law, perpetuating a system of racial segregation. When the all-white private school Prince Edward Academy is established after the Supreme Court ruling to integrate schools, the surrounding community continues to be divided—only now black students receive no education at all. The direct effect is illiteracy: A 1963 study revealed a 20-percent increase in the illiteracy rate of black students through age 22.

There were other consequences to the schools’ closing, too. Black families were broken apart. Some black parents sent their children to live with relatives in other states or to the program run by Kittrell College in North Carolina. As a result, some families are separated for good. Elsie Lancaster’s daughter Gwen, for instance, never returns to Farmville as a young person after being sent to school in Massachusetts. Even when the public schools reopen in 1964, the students remain racially divided, as most of the white children continue to attend Prince Edward Academy.

In addition, the effects of racism on the community of Farmville and surrounding areas run deep and wide, as black and white residents continue to distrust each other to the present day.