A Stronger Kinship: One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith [Hardcover]

Anna-Lisa Cox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2006

Starting in the 1860s, the people of Covert, Michigan, broke laws and barriers to attempt what then seemed impossible: to love one's neighbor as oneself. This is the inspiring, true story of an extraordinary town where blacks and whites lived as equals.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Covert, Mich., is home to 2,600 residents today—1,200 Caucasians, 900 African-Americans and 500 Hispanics. That's an unusual mix for a rural Midwestern town, which, as Cox reveals, has an intriguing history. Focusing on the late 19th-century, Cox, a historian at Chicago's Newberry Library, recounts how Covert became racially integrated just after the Civil War and how its residents lived harmoniously thereafter, even as other American towns practiced segregation or ended up bedeviled by racial hatred. Some of the blacks who made their way to Covert had been born into slavery; others had always been free in name if not in practice. Many of the whites who made their way to Covert from the East arrived as confirmed abolitionists, with affiliations in some cases to the Congregational Church. Farming or logging mills provided steady income for most residents, and the relatively low level of poverty aided racial concord. Cox's frequent speculations about what specific Covert residents thought or did mar the book somewhat, and her flat prose fails to convey the vitality of the women and men she finds so fascinating. But Cox's optimism is infectious, and her recovery of Covert's nearly lost history admirable. (Feb. 6)
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From Booklist

In the nineteenth century, when much of the nation was solidifying racial discrimination and barriers between the races and to achievement for former slaves, the small town of Covert, Michigan, was embarking on a bold social order--equality among the races. Historian Cox details the founding families--black and white--who established Covert in 1860 as a mixed-race community that defied the social conventions of the time, electing blacks to powerful political positions and providing a haven for economic development for achievers of all races. Drawing on historical documents from newspaper accounts to personal diaries and town records, Cox portrays the determined individuals who helped one another in hard times, built schools for all to attend, encouraged church membership for all, and in myriad ways took a different path than that of a nation in the grip of Jim Crow and lynchings. This is a revealing look at a small town whose accomplishments have been virtually forgotten. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (February 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316110183
• ISBN-13: 978-0316110181
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book!, February 24, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Stronger Kinship: One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith (Hardcover)

Defined as "concealment and shelter," Covert, Michigan is an aptly named place. American history lessons taught in the 1960s never mentioned the fact that this town existed as a fully integrated community in the 1860s. Now nearly 150 years later, as we strive for racial equality, it is enlightening to know that it is part of our American heritage.

Anna-Lisa Cox has completed exhaustive research of the people and events that converged in a time that racism was so prevalent, three million Americans went to war to defend their beliefs.

A Stronger Kinship is filled with the names and histories of the people who created this concealed community founded on acceptance. In a time when education was not readily available to many whites in the unsettled frontiers of the Midwest, black and white children learned side-by-side in Covert. Interracial marriages and an equal distribution of wealth and property were normal.

At times it is a struggle to keep track of the names and dates, particularly when more than one person has the same name. Ample footnotes help guide the reader. More than a novel, this book is a historical depiction of important and relevant events.

Armchair Interviews says: Seeming too good to be true, it's hard to believe that such a wonderful legacy has not been widely honored and celebrated by history and all Americans.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Stronger Kinship review, November 3, 2006

By 

L. Brigham (Covert, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Stronger Kinship: One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith (Hardcover)

The book is well researched and well written. I live in Covert (the town depicted in the book) and my husband was raised there. I am involved in the community and have spoken to several of the residents interviewed for the book. They felt it was an accurate depiction of life in
Covert, and my husband's recollections of the stories told to him as a child cofirm this. I met Ms. Anna-Lisa Cox this summer and was impressed with her dedication to telling Covert's story accurately and her continueing interest in the community. I was personally interested to read about an otherwise obscure village that was a beacon of hope to African -Americans looking for a place to be treated with dignity and respect in the 1800 and early 1900s.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Stronger Kinship, August 23, 2006

By 

Janet Mchugh (Portland Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Stronger Kinship: One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith (Hardcover)

I was drawn to this book because I was born and raised in the Toledo Ohio area...I was amazed at the history and facts as they were presented by Ms Cox..I had seen her interview on C-Span. I enjoyed the way she tired together the families and the communtiy. She also brought alive the struggles of the era. Like walking form North Carolina to Michigan!! The strength and fortitude of these people; the losses and the rewards for risk...I thought it was an amazing book and a very insightful look at the times