“I would have loved to have had a copy of Suitcase Full of Dreams to use as a teaching resource. I can see it, taste the fear, feel Grandma’s heart beat way too fast, and see Mama’s young woman face become old for the moment. I was way too little to understand that night of terror, but the tale has been told so many times. The dark forces had their way and we were running for our lives. Surrounding the house, one of them called Grandma out to the front porch and told her. With hoods over their faces, they carried torches and shotguns. There must have been thirty or forty men dressed in white robes. That night, while Grandpa’s soul was leaving his body and his blood bathed the damp ground, the Klansmen came to our house. This excerpt from Suitcase Full of Dreams captures the anguish of the time: The Klan drove Kersh’s family out of town, forcing them into Mobile, Alabama, where Hoy spent the remainder of her childhood. The harsh reality of racism first hit Hoy when her grandfather was murdered because of their relationship. Kersh’s father, born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, birthplace of the blues, was the son of a German sheriff who had a black mistress.
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