W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the problem of race in America, and what he called “double-consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois's words all too well. . . . Ailey is reared in the north, in the City, but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother's family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. Since she was a child, Ailey has fought a battle for belonging that is made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma and the whispers of women . . . who urge Ailey to succeed in their stead. To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors . . . in the Deep South. Along the way, Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story; and the song; of America itself.-- Adapted from jacket
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