A gladdening, unsentimental chronicle of a Midwestern town that
practiced racial equality against all late-19th-century odds. The
town was Covert, Mich. "Starting in the 1860s the people of this
place broke both laws and social expectations to develop a
community of radical equality," writes Cox, scholar in residence at
Chicago's Newberry Library. Though it was very much an abolitionist
community, Covert was not a utopian experiment, the author makes
plain. Yankees from Massachusetts, free black farmers from North
Carolina, deeply accented Europeans, Native Americans and black
frontier folk born and raised in the Midwest all gathered there to
promote the idea that a vibrant community should tap the strengths
of all its citizens. A series of small yet profound acts had big
consequences. For example, a black man ran for elective office when
it was still a crime, and a largely white electorate voted him in
because he was the right person for the job. Working from local
records, newspapers and personal reflections, Cox credits the
town's integrated success to the most prosaic of reasons: Its
residents were more interested in thriving economically than in
expending energy on efforts to promote racism. "Covert's unusual
culture not only blossomed but bore good harvest, while the rest of
the nation saw the meager fruits of Reconstruction wither on the
vine," the author notes. Still, it was never entirely about
economic self-interest; Covertites were well aware of their
anti-establishmentarianism and pursued it with thumb-nosing
disregard for the bigotry in which the Midwest trafficked with
gusto during the second half of the 19th century. After 50 years of
going its own way, the town fell victim to changing demographics;
as the graybeards died off, ignorance wheedled its way into the
town's fabric, and Covert's rare time faded. Covert well deserves
the limelight thrown by Cox as a grand example of decency and
defiance of Jim Crow's gathering venality. (Kirkus Reviews)
In the heartland of 19th century America, amid a roaring sea of
racism and hatred, a mixed-race community existed where blacks
lived as equal citizens with whites. Schools and churches were
completely integrated, blacks and whites married and power and
wealth were shared between the races. Starting in the 1860s, the
people of Covert, Michigan, broke both the laws and barriers to
attempt what then seemed impossible: to love ones neighbour as
oneself! Far from serving as a beacon, amidst America's turmoil the
story of Covert was forgotten, swept aside by those who found its
very existence threatening, the memory of it wiped out by the
passage of time. Now, in A Stronger Kinship, Anna-Lisa Cox gives us
an astonishing account of the residents of Covert, told through six
leading families who lived out this grand experiment in peaceable
justice. It presents an America that miraculously once was and a
vision of what it could become. This amazing history is a
revelation.
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