Leaving Tuscaloosa by Walter Bennett

From Goodreads - 

It is the deep South, 1962, the year before Bull Connor turned his fire hoses on civil rights protesters in Birmingham and the Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church. Two young men, one black and one white, are poised to face their destinies as the world erupts beneath their feet.

For Richeboux Branscomb, the journey begins one sultry Alabama night in a rattle-trap Ford on a dusty road: a raw egg is hurled at a revered leader of the black community. For Acee Waites, it begins with a missing brother and a ruthless sheriff’s search for him and eventually Acee, himself. Propelled along separate tracks through 36 hours of racial turmoil, these estranged boyhood friends encounter tenderness and cruelty, erotic passion, and murderous rage. Then amid the spreading fires of racial violence, their paths converge in a moving, riveting climax.

Leaving Tuscaloosa has been called, “compelling” and “important,” by two of America’s leading novelists because it asks basic questions–what is the truth of our history, how has that truth shaped our lives, what are our moral obligations as a result–and it responds with a story of redemption of the human heart.

A turn back in time, a glimpse of the past.  Leaving Tuscaloosa is a riveting story steeply based in real truth with the oppression of the south in the sixties as well as segregation and racism.  The characters are memorable and the writing is excellent, at times brilliant.  A very important book that brings issues of the past to light, but also, is thought-provoking enough to bring today's issues into play as well.

At times taut, poignant and deep in suspense, at the forefront are the characters trying to make it through just another day.  A book that I'd recommend to anyone - it's simply brilliant and relative!

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.