Locust in the Sandbox , livre ebook

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212 pages

English

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On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, Josie Bee Johnson is on her way to visit Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Before she arrives, however, “locusts” attack. A bomb placed by the Klan is detonated in the church basement, killing four young girls. It is a life-changing tragedy that will grab the attention of the entire nation. In the meantime, Josie’s heart breaks. She is overwhelmed by dark distrust and anger. She questions her family, her church, her faith, her God.

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Historical

Fiction

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Publié par	Outskirts Press
Date de parution	18 novembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781977250155
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Locust in the Sandbox All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2022 Cynthia Gray v5.0
The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com
ISBN: 978-1-9772-5015-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021920038
Cover Photo © 2022 Cynthia Gray. All rights reserved - used with permission.
Outskirts Press and the "OP" logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.
Martin Luther King Jr.
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
A Note from the Author
Prologue
1.The Attack on Hope
2. The Challenge
3. The Kindness of Others
4. Moving Out
5. The Melon Dance
6. Fiesta School
7. Angel List
8. The Gift of Sight
9. The Girl with the Tissues
10. Hand-Me-Downs
11. Bad Penny
12. Vodka and Kool-Aid
13. A Showdown
14. Sandbox Lessons
15. Love Beats Hate
16. Putting on the Ritz
17. Resounding Remembrances
18. Contemplations Unexpected
19. Going Home
20. Saying Goodbye
Suggested Resources
With Gratitude
A N OTE FROM THE A UTHOR
A B OMB IN a church. Four girls killed. It made no sense. On the television I saw smoke. Rubble. Chaos. Confusion. It was September 15, 1963. Who would kill children? Who does that? Who were these evil locusts and what children would be next?
Locust in the Sandbox is a narrative about children that started in my head the day I walked into the back room of my grandparents’ home next door. Seeing and hearing a television broadcast by a voice familiar to me Walter Cronkite was confusing. He was talking about the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Down South in Birmingham, Alabama, four girls had been killed on a Sunday morning, and two boys were murdered later that same day. Being close in age to the youngest murdered child, Denise McNair, age eleven, I was puzzled. Who would kill young girls? The other three children, each fourteen years old, were Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley. And they were all gone.
Pieces of information would eventually come through our morning and evening papers, and my grandparents, avid readers, would comment in hushed voices. Those responsible had not been punished although it was firmly known that the bombing had been orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan. I could not get it out of my head.
Looking back, I vividly remember turning sixteen and being aware that the four Birmingham girls had not gotten to celebrate this milestone birthday. For them there had been no cakes or candles or teasing about being sixteen and not yet kissed. It remained a mystery to me why no one had yet been held accountable.
In 1967, I had a junior high history teacher who greatly influenced me. She loved history and wanted us to value it too. When she spoke, I hung on to her words. She taught history ferociously, but what she shared on the level of humanity and civil rights influenced me the most. She ignited thoughts about what was going on down South that had been tumbling in my mind. This gem of an educator frequently stated that if you don’t know your history, you cannot move forward.
During my college years, in the early ’70s, there were still no convictions in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. I continued to question how justice could go so terribly wrong. Justice delayed. Justice denied. How do you not punish those who are responsible for a blatant, heinous crime? It was clear there could be no closure for parents, as well as the community still fervently attempting to seek justice for the children’s murders. The case was reopened in 1971. In 1977 the first Klansman was convicted. It was reopened again in 1988, but one of the suspects died before being brought to justice. Finally in 2001 and 2002 two more Klansmen were found guilty and sentenced.
Once I had babies, I saw the church bombing through a different lens. As I experienced an incredible, newfound love for my children, I also discovered a newfound fear of something tragic happening to them. Realizing but not yet fully understanding how impossible it is to shield and protect one’s children every minute of every day, you learn that you just do the best you can to keep them safe. And to pray. Constantly.
Six months after the birth of my first child, my cousin was murdered in Dallas, Texas. Barbara, a vivacious girl, was sitting in her apartment with two friends watching a football game when intruders entered the space. She was raped, tortured, stabbed, and strangled by two depraved and dangerous men. The date was September 11, 1980. The Park Lane Murders were chilling and would shatter the lives of parents and siblings, destroying their world as they once knew it. Rebuilding is a difficult process and moving forward a continuous one. Grief is a mixed bag of joy and sadness that comes with no instructions or time frame, and the journey of sorrow unwinds differently within each of us.
Although I will never know or understand what the Birmingham families felt and were forced to endure, I do know that to lose a child through a deliberate and violent act changes every aspect of your life, and that the heart can never fully heal. It’s one thing to know true evil exists and is out there, but when it takes your children, it breaks you in ways you could never have imagined. And yet you have to figure out how to go on without them, praying to God you can find a way to exist in a world that they are no longer part of. No one wants their child forgotten. Their names are important, their lives unforgettable.
Locust in the Sandbox is a fictional story that started moving in my mind and inching its way into my heart over a period of almost fifty years. Sometimes there is no reason why we hang on to the things we carry from our childhood.
I have often wondered where the four Birmingham girls would be today and what they would be doing had the church bombing never occurred. These four girls were full of life and laughter, involved in and enjoying all the things young girls do. They had families and friends and were greatly loved. Bright as the stars that magnificently hang in the sky, I can only imagine that Carole, Denise, Addie Mae, and Cynthia are in the presence of their heavenly Father, singing and dancing with the angels.
It is my intent to share with an audience of readers who do not know the story nor the historical significance of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Sometimes living in different pockets of the country prevents us from being aware, let alone informed. I want readers to know and remember the names of the four young victims. It would be beneficial to check out more of the factual and historical accounts of this fateful terrorist attack before reading this book.
In 2011 a remarkable book by Carolyn Maull McKinstry, While the World Watched , was published. A personal accounting of the bombing, it connected the points of hard facts with answers to the questions I had wondered about over the years. The timeline was helpful as well as important. This book should be part of any American History course or required reading in schools. The inclusion of Martin Luther King’s words was deeply meaningful as were other speeches and quotes. The layout and variety provide a well-written experience and education for the reader. It is a compelling book that you will want to read more than once. Its truths are timeless, its message powerful.
Another valuable source is Spike Lee’s 4 Little Girls: The Story of Four Young Girls Who Paid the Price for a Nation’s Ignorance . This film documentary clearly depicts the oppressive challenges and atmosphere of life in the South during the civil rights era. It is an honoring tribute to Carole, Denise, Addie Mae, and Cynthia.
Locust in the Sandbox refers to the "locust" as that person, place, or thing that is not good or right or helpful. It holds us back from being the best version of ourselves, from who we were designed to be. It will eat away at our existence. Locusts devour, devastate, and destroy. They find the cracks in our armor and tempt or fool us in order to get a foothold into our thoughts and actions. Locusts prey on our weaknesses. They have two sets of mouth parts: one to chop us down and the other to pull us out. When left unrecognized and uncontrolled, they swarm together to become even a bigger negative force that becomes difficult to alter, change, or rein in.
"Sandbox" refers to that space where one lives, works, raises a family, eats, plays, attends school, goes to church, and everything in between. Our home. Our community. We need to protect the sandbox and understand what is in it. Morals. Values. Habits. Prejudices. The list is endless. If we don’t know or understand what is sitting in our sandbox, we open our space to negative intruders locusts who will multiply and wreak havoc on our lives and the lives of others.
Take time to sift through the sand. Dig down deep in those corners. And ask yourself one question:

What is in my sandbox?
P ROLOGUE
Do to us what you will, and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will