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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well Done!, January 1, 2007
Bestselling author, Lalita Tademy, returns to a familiar subject in her family history and sheds light on a dark incident during the Reconstruction period in the antebellum South. Her latest novel, Red River, focuses on the atrocities that occurred April 13, 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana. Many of those affected were ex-slaves who were the overwhelming majority in an area nestled among former plantations and rich farmland. After a lifetime of servitude, these newly freed men exercised their right to vote and ousted the long seated bigoted Democratic county sheriff and judge. They embraced their recently bestowed voting rights and elected residents who either sympathized with their plight (scalawags) or those who had recently located to the area from the North (carpetbaggers) after the Civil War. The election results did not sit well with local white supremacists who chose not to recognize the newly elected officials. When their calls to the governor to uphold the election results went unanswered, the freedmen stood up for their rights only to be shot down at the Colfax courthouse waiting for federal assistance that never came. The end result was the death of three white men and a mass murder of over a hundred African Americans, most of whom were lynched after they had surrendered. No one has ever been held accountable for their deaths.
Despite the carnage and the encroaching epoch of Jim Crow, Tademy illustrates that her family's dream did not perish that day. Their vision, determination, and resourcefulness to educate the area's Negro children held fast despite the violent threats and racial hostility. Their family values for education, self-reliance, and self-respect were instilled in each generation and survives in modern day. She celebrates their lives, loves, and births and mourns their losses, sacrifices, and deaths. Readers will admire the family's love, commitment to each other, and loyalty to friends that sustained them through the good and bad times.
The essence of the story is Tademy's ability to conjure authentic images and scenarios using her naturally candid approach to storytelling. She gains reader empathy by opening the novel with the reflections of Polly, her spunky, paternal great-great-grandmother, reminiscing about the event. The author aptly weaves a tenable tale of her family's involvement during that fateful juncture - fathers, sons, and friends were wounded, maimed, and others died defending their rights, beliefs, and dignity. The novel, bolstered by credible artifacts and sources, chronicles the events leading up to, during, and the aftermath of the massacre. As in Cane River, the author softens the facts with a personal touch - actual photos of her family who are the novel's key characters. Although, I did not find this offering as instantly engaging as the previous novel; it is still nonetheless a wonderful tribute to the Tademy family. More importantly, I appreciate its value as an educational instrument for this seemingly forgotten incident in American history. Admittedly, I had never heard of the Colfax Massacre prior to reading this book and was surprised that very little has been published about such a major travesty. For this alone, I say - Well Done!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
From agony to equality, January 2, 2007
The first half of Red River contains alot of horror, brutality, and despair. I would not recommend it for pre-teens. It is a true story of how the hopes of Reconstruction yielded to the realities of white supremacy in Louisiana in the "Jim Crow" period of 1873 on.
But the second half of the book tells a more hopeful story of how the black community around Colfax, LA clawed its way out of despair through hard work and education. Lalita Tademy writes with passion, and she uses real events and the history of her own family to add impact. This is a good novel, probably better than Cane River, her first book. While Tademy is not yet a brilliant literary stylist, she tells an important story in a dramatic and effective way. It is worth reading.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The spirit of a people survives, February 8, 2007
RED RIVER is a fictional account of the Easter Sunday 1873 Massacre in Colfax, Louisiana. As the story begins, a newly elected Republican government, elected largely because of the vote of black men vested with voting rights for the first time, is struggling to take office against the incumbent Democratic government. Though assistance from federal troops is expected, the black men of Colfax, Louisiana, voluntarily provide protection to the new officials during the first days of the new term. Sam Tademy, Israel Smith and Isaac "McCully" McCullen join with hundreds of other black men in the fight to protect and secure the new government.
Unfortunately, the incumbents are unwilling to allow the new government to continue in office. Though Reconstruction allowed black men the right to vote and granted them equal rights, many whites are resistant to such changes endorsed by the federal government. These whites vow to keep the black people in their place. Groups such as the White League and the Ku Klux Klan oppose the newly elected officials and vow to return the status quo of the pre-Reconstruction era to this small, Southern town. During the Easter Sunday face-off between the two groups, the incumbent officials and their white supporters massacred more than a hundred black men. In the aftermath of the massacre, the lives of hundreds of families are forever changed; husbands, fathers and brothers have been cruelly taken away, and the survivors are forced to eek out a living in the racially charged town, of which the incumbent government regains control. No one dares to speak of the massacre and the black people of Colfax conduct their daily affairs, careful not to interact with whites unless absolutely necessary.
RED RIVER chronicles the struggle of the Tademys and the Smiths through three generations. Determination and a will to survive are passed on from generation to generation. Though continually tried, the will of the Tademys and the Smiths was not broken. The spirit of these families was undying and unyielding and ultimately led to their survival. The Tademys and the Smiths worked hard to provide for their families, become property owners and to eventually establish the first black school in the region. Because of their tenacity and determination, the Tademys and the Smiths are able to achieve a modicum of success during this difficult era of American history.
RED RIVER continues the story of the Tademys, who were introduced in Cane River, and provides more detailed information about the family's struggle to survive after slavery, through Reconstruction and beyond. As in Cane River, Lalita Tademy does a wonderful job of weaving fact with fiction in RED RIVER. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories she created to support the factual accounts of the massacre and the rebuilding efforts of the families in the aftermath. RED RIVER also documents the Colfax Massacre, an event that has gone unnoticed in American history. I greatly anticipated the release of RED RIVER and am happy to say that Tademy did not disappoint. I am confident that previous fans of her work will enjoy this novel as well.
Reviewed by Hope Denise Murphy
for The RAWISTAZ Reviewers
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