Jessie Reimer
Staff Writer
The novel “A Stronger Kinship” by Anna-Lisa Cox tells a heart-warming tale of courage, hope and faith in a time of racial segregation, violence, and hatred. The story focuses on Covert, Michigan, a small town with big ideas.
Anna-Lisa Cox, who visited Pepperdine this spring semester for a lecture and book signing, grew up in a home that encouraged integration and equality. In the 1860s, her mother actively participated in the Civil Rights struggles in Chicago. Cox attended Hope College, a Christian located only twenty miles from Covert. Her interest in Covert began with a senior paper that allowed her to work with historical documents.
The backline of the story begins with pre-Civil War tension and extends into the Jim Crow laws of the mid-twentieth century. In 1896, the court case of Plesy vs. Ferguson legalized segregation and “opened the floodgates to institutional, legal, and social racism,” writes Cox. The Midwest was seen as a frontier for the fight against slavery, and ultimately, racism.
While the rest of America in the 1860s prepared for the Civil War and the war on slavery, a group of well-traveled Yankee settlers founded a town that loved one’s neighbor regardless of race. Cox writes that the citizens of Covert “thought of themselves as a people of strict morals and disciplined order who could bring ‘civilization’ to what they perceived as the depths of the wilderness.”
Through a series of private diaries, oral history, overlooked documents, and contemporary, Cox comprised a series of narratives and records that rely solely on speculation. Much of the story is told through a conditional tense, relying on the imagination and a development of “would haves” and “could haves.”
Cox describes a hot August festival with too many peaches and cherries, even though she of course did not attend the festival. She describes the January thaw and the worries of the farmers as if she had lived though it. Cox narrates the stories with precise and cautious historical relevance and proof.
Cox writes about the appropriateness and irony of the town’s name. The town provided a shelter for anti-racism, but they neither tried nor wanted to keep their ideals hidden. Isaiah 4:6 reads, “There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.” The town’s faith provides an insight into their unique community.
Throughout the novel, Cox toys with a few ideas of why Covert’s story has been overlooked. Perhaps the integration of the community was such a norm that local and nearby residents did not see fit to report the uniqueness of the Covert. Perhaps those who opposed Covert’s way of life saw fit to discourage the spread their history.
Cox also writes about a few narratives relevant to the era, but necessarily related to Covert. A black preacher by the name of Elijah Lovejoy in Missouri “dared to speak out against the horrifying killing of a slave who was burned at the stake.” Lovejoy was later murdered by an angry mob in his new town of Alton, Illinois. To string together tales and historical records from all over the country, Cox uses transitions that relate the differing stories.
Covert ignored the raging sea of racism flooding the country. “Schools and churches were completely integrated, blacks and whites married, and power and wealth were shared between both races,” writes Cox. William Conner exemplifies Covert’s racial integration and tolerance. He became the first black Justice of Peace in the town of Covert with an overwhelming victory of 136-8.
Covert had its fair share of problems though, especially with the initial hardships. According to Cox, a floor was viewed as a luxury. Disease also threatened the formation of towns, and “needles to say, death was a common visitor to these early setters’ homes,” writes Cox.
Henry Shepard’s narrative emphasizes the struggle for slaves during the pre-Civil War times. By the age of 21, Shepard promised himself that he would walk to freedom. During his journey, the cold of the winter forced him to take shelter in a swamp, and his feet rotted under the harsh conditions. He was re-captured, but made the walk again with his rotted feet, this time successfully reaching Canada.
Cox eloquently describes Covert’s daily life and moral values. Covert coveted education and hired teachers before preachers and built schools before election halls. On average, 99% of settlers above the age of 5 could read. Covert also had a highly comprehensive library that included Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novels Uncle Tom’s Cabin and later, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp.
Cox emphasizes the integration of schools through her study of autograph books from Covert schools. At least three books belong to black students and have white student’s signatures. Black students signed white student’s books as well. Cox relates the reader to the students by including sections of the autograph books. The boys tended to write silly entries while girls got a little more serious.
Cox sums up the mentality of Covert in one thought. She writes, “Those men and women, blacks and white, who came to Covert did so either because they cared sufficiently about living in an integrated community or because they had no interest in expanding energy on efforts to promote racism.”
The town of Covert faced much more of a challenge to keep things the same and not change with the outside world. This single community demonstrates the real possibility of integration and equality. Their courage and faith inspires hope for both the present and the future.
07-14-2006
