Entrenched on the same land since the early 1800s, the Howlands have, for seven generations, been pillars of their southern community. Extraordinary family lore has been passed down to Abigail Howland, but not all of it. When shocking facts come to light about her late grandfather William's relationship with Margaret Carmichael, a black housekeeper, the community is outraged, and quickly gathers to vent its fury on Abigail. Alone in the house the...

Roxanne Reeves defines her life by the committees she heads and the social status she cultivates. But she is keeping secrets that make her an outsider in her own town, always in search of acceptance. And when she's given a job none of the other white women want - researching the town's African-American history for a tour of local sites - she feels she can't say no. And elderly Grace Clark, a retired black schoolteacher, agrees to become her guide....

An African-American family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.

In Mississippi in 1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago.

Mather, an African-American man raised in France, and Lewis, the product of a genteel Southern upbringing, return to Mississippi as heroes from the battlefields of World War II to discover the supposedly peaceful homefront about to explode in racial violence.