Book Description

This story is one of the thousand threads of experience that communities and individuals endured through the chapters of the Great African American Migration from the South to the North. The need to flee from the harsh, desperate lifestyles in the South into the perceived light of hope offered by the urban North was ever-present. Some made it through the transition to jobs and future possibilities. Others adjusted and held on to their values and struggled to keep their eyes on the prize. Or they turned to whatever it took to survive, which included engaging in questionable and misguided behavior. Brothers Clarence and Darrell Johnson escaped North. While Darrell became a bully and an abusive cop, his brother Clarence moved in the opposite moral direction. When teenager Albert Blake intervened to protect an innocent from a bully, he could not have imagined his kindness would change his life twenty years later. On his way to a friend's house, Albert is accosted by a street urchin at knifepoint. Having martial arts training, Albert dispatches the would-be mugger (Sammy Smalls), who runs away. The next day, a picture of a dead Smalls is on the local paper's front page. An eyewitness describes the clothes the perp wore, which coincidently matched those worn by Albert Blake. Detective Darrell Johnson makes Blake the prime suspect. So, to avoid being accused, Albert leaves town, and his friends vow to find the actual killer so Albert can return to his pregnant wife and children. With little to go on and every rock turned a miracle is needed to vindicate their friend.