Review written by Ruth Ellen PriceGene Cheek taps into the world of a young boy with straightforward storytelling, allowing the reader to become a part of Gene’s childhood experiences with a wise grandmother, an abusive alcoholic father, a gentle mother and a legal system that forces a mother to choose between two of her children. After years of abuse Gene’s mother Sallie Anderson finds the strength to divorce her husband, but when she falls in love with the wrong man (according to his skin color) she loses her job and begins dropping further into poverty. Under the laws of North Carolina in 1963 Sallie and Cornelius Tucker are not allowed to marry. When Sallie gives birth to their child, the entire family becomes besieged by hatred.
Gene’s father Jesse Cheek was taught to hate “coloreds” from birth and could not abide his wife with another man, particularly a man who was not only the wrong race, but who was everything he was not – a good father. Supported by his mother, Mr. Cheek took Sallie to court and with the assistance of the legal system, Sallie was given a choice no mother should ever have to make.
While this tragedy took place over fifty years ago, it provides a cautionary tale about how hate can become institutionalized in our legal system and prejudice can defy what is most important in family matters, abiding love.
Gene Cheek will be reading from his memoir at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival on September 7 and 8 in Burnsville.
