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| Category: Memoir |
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| About the Book | |
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The memoir details the life of one Black man who is the grandson of a slave but became the first elected Black member of the Town Council and the first Black member elected to the Northampton County Board of Supervisors. It addresses Black and White relations and the experience of being Black and how one navigates the Jim Crow racist era. By reading this account of a Black man's life one may develop a better understanding of why we are experiencing still racial injustice and inequality, after legal barriers had been abolished by the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Its target audience would be all who are interested, both Blacks and Whites, in learning how they still carry the legacy of slavery in their hearts and how it informs their behavior at present and how by acknowledging their racist beliefs, they can choose to correct them, with actions that help realize the dream of true equality of the races and fulfill the lofty promise of the Revolution: its declaration of the self- evident truth, that all men are created equal, with unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
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| Reviews | |
The promise of our future is built on the foundation of our past. This carefully crafted memoir by Tom Godwin is a portrait of what it means to build a foundation. It is an honest portrait of Cape Charles, a small town in Virginia known as the ‘Jewel of the Eastern Shore.’ Written by Metty Vargas Pellicer, it specifically traces the African American community’s important contributions to the success of the town, a part of history that has been overlooked by earlier writers. It lays bare the joys, the accomplishments and the obstacles faced by African Americans as they built businesses, homes, schools, roads and lives that intertwined with their white neighbors. It should be read by students of social history. It should be read by the residents of the town and the state of Virginia. All of our futures are strengthened by acknowledging our shared foundations. It is a wonderful addition not only to the history of Cape Charles but also to the thinking of those concerned with the on-going disparities between the races. “A most engaging memoir, at once intimate and universal. The book presents in his own words the vivid, moving life story of a sensitive, intelligent, and gregarious man through a period of great change for black Americans. Tom's long life and detailed knowledge of his own family history enables the account to extend from slavery times into segregation, the civil rights era, and the present day. Son of an economically successful family, Tom's description of life in a small segregated southern town is authentic and not without humor. Through his words one comes as close as would be possible to experience and deal with the daily insults, inequities and unfairness of life for a black person in a climate of unquestioned white supremacy, but within a town which also contained a vibrant and confident black community. The account is enriched by the author's framing Tom's core personal material in local and national historical context and adding observations from her own Filipino life experience. The book is a captivating read.” "It is an important contribution to the understanding of the black experience in Cape Charles and on the Eastern Shore. The narrative is always powerful and is especially moving where Mr. Godwin speaks of his family and his faith.”
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| About the Author | |
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Metty Vargas Pellicer is a grandmother and a retired psychiatrist, who immigrated to the USA in 1967. She has published 2 books, Hello, From Somewhere: Stories of the Roads I Traveled and a memoir, From Miman, With Love: A Grandmother’s Memoir. She lived in Atlanta GA for 37 years where she practiced Psychiatry and retired in Cape Charles in 2017. English is a second language and she speaks two Filipino dialects, Tagalog and Bicol, and is gaining proficiency in Spanish. She loves to travel and particularly interested in the history of the place. In writing Tom’s memoir, she became fascinated by the history of the Eastern Shore and Cape Charles in particular. She is completing a historical fiction novel, set in 19th century Philippines, Imperfect Pearl. She gets her writing guidance and support from a small group of writers meeting informally; Expressions: Eastern Shore Writers’s Group. |