They Got Daddy: One Family's Reckoning with Racism and Faith

by Sharon Tubbs

Overview

An unforgettable journey through racism and faith across the generations.

January 15, 1959—a day that changed one family forever. White supremacists kidnapped and severely beat rural Alabama preacher Israel Page, nearly killing him because he had sued a White sheriff's deputy for injuries suffered in a car crash. After "they" "got Daddy," Israel Page's children began leaving the Jim Crow South, the event leaving an indelible mark on the family and its future. Decades later, the events of that day fueled journalist Sharon Tubbs's epic quest to learn who had "gotten" her mother's daddy and why.

They Got Daddy follows Tubbs on her moving journey from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the back roads and rural churches of Alabama. A powerful revelation of the sustaining and redemptive power of faith and unflinching testimony to the deeply embedded effects of racism across the generations, it demonstrates how the search for the truth can offer a chance at true healing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253064462
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sharon Tubbs began her professional career as a newspaper reporter and editor. In a career that spanned seventeen years, she worked briefly for the Philadelphia Inquirer then for the Tampa Bay Times. As a journalist, she covered various beats that included small-town government, local crime, and national religious issues. Today, Sharon Tubbs is a writer, inspirational speaker, and the director of a nonprofit organization that empowers under-resourced residents in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to live healthier lives.

Read an Excerpt

Decades had passed since I got the first hint that something illegal, something tragic, had happened to my grandfather. Back then, I was a little girl in the latter stages of elementary school, living in my childhood home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My mother and I sat on the couch watching the TV news, and a cloud of silly dunce caps paraded across the screen. The Ku Klux Klan had a permit to march somewhere in the state. This was the 1980s. I thought of nice white teachers, guidance counselors, and classmates at school, so the news story confused me. White people still hated Black people? The KKK, those scary men with the white sheets from the Black history movies—those people still exist? For sure, Mama said. And that's when it slipped out of her, almost like a distant memory: "They got Daddy."

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Gone, Just Gone
2. History Breathes Again
3. Drilling Deep
4. Migrating to a New Life
5. Getting Religion
6. A Different Kind of Shout
7. Policing Moonshine and Murder
8. A Country Lawyer
9. Good Times Meets the Brady Bunch
10. A Black Man's Capital Crime
11. He Was That
12. Fake Preachers and Winding Roads
13. The Klan and Me
14. Faith vs. Fear
15. Turning Mess into Ministry
16. Vengeance Is His
Notes

What People are Saying About This

Eric Deggans

Lots of writers have tackled America's historic abuses of Black people and Black families. But few handle the subject as deftly as Sharon Tubbs, whose They Got Daddy connects the trauma which reverberated through her own family history when her grandfather was abused by powerful white people, to the larger history of Black America's attempts to survive similar oppression. Her story is poignant and carefully told, filled with telling details and powerful writing, making the case that such injustices never stay in the past, but are passed through a family's DNA in a way that makes the trauma a living thing to be coped with every day. They Got Daddy provides important lessons on how to understand — and hopefully come to terms with — a legacy of oppression which remains a potent force in America to this day. 

Rev. Keisha I. Patrick

In this compelling account of her preacher grandfather's 1959 kidnapping in the Jim Crow South, Tubbs unveils the tension between Black Americans' deep-rooted faith and their ongoing quest for full citizenship and justice. She brilliantly illustrates the persistent generational trauma that results from America's racially imbalanced social and legal systems for the oppressed and oppressor, the privileged and unprivileged, and the complacent and the activist, alike.

Kelley Benham French

A gorgeous and haunting book, spun so carefully you can smell the dirt roads and the shirt starch and the bologna sandwiches. You hear the poetry in the voices of the characters. You feel how suddenly darkness drops and meanness strikes, and how steadfastly the family of Preacher Page leans on its faith. A triumph of reporting and storytelling.

Editorial Reviews

"In this compelling account of her preacher grandfather's 1959 kidnapping in the Jim Crow South, Tubbs unveils the tension between Black Americans' deep-rooted faith and their ongoing quest for full citizenship and justice. She brilliantly illustrates the persistent generational trauma that results from America's racially imbalanced social and legal systems for the oppressed and oppressor, the privileged and unprivileged, and the complacent and the activist, alike."—Rev. Keisha I. Patrick, Esq.

"Lots of writers have tackled America's historic abuses of Black people and Black families. But few handle the subject as deftly as Sharon Tubbs, whose They Got Daddy connects the trauma which reverberated through her own family history when her grandfather was abused by powerful white people, to the larger history of Black America's attempts to survive similar oppression. Her story is poignant and carefully told, filled with telling details and powerful writing, making the case that such injustices never stay in the past, but are passed through a family's DNA in a way that makes the trauma a living thing to be coped with every day. They Got Daddy provides important lessons on how to understand — and hopefully come to terms with — a legacy of oppression which remains a potent force in America to this day."—Eric Deggans, National Public Radio, TV Critic and Media Analyst

"A gorgeous and haunting book, spun so carefully you can smell the dirt roads and the shirt starch and the bologna sandwiches. You hear the poetry in the voices of the characters. You feel how suddenly darkness drops and meanness strikes, and how steadfastly the family of Preacher Page leans on its faith. A triumph of reporting and storytelling."—Kelley Benham French, senior editor, USA TODAY and author of Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon.

"After reading They Got Daddy, now it's my turn to use this deeper understanding of the reality of the past to explore my personal role standing next to Sharon and others in solidarity. We have a long road ahead to acknowledge the unspeakable horrors of the past and there is no single solution. But rather than ask ourselves when will the hatred end, perhaps the better question is, where can I help the healing start?"—The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne

"An exceptionally well written, organized and presented combination of Black History and Biography, They Got Daddy: One Family's Reckoning with Racism and Faith is a compelling story and one that is especially and unreservedly recommended..."—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

An exceptionally well written, organized and presented combination of Black History and Biography, They Got Daddy: One Family's Reckoning with Racism and Faith is a compelling story and one that is especially and unreservedly recommended...

Midwest Book Review

After reading They Got Daddy, now it's my turn to use this deeper understanding of the reality of the past to explore my personal role standing next to Sharon and others in solidarity. We have a long road ahead to acknowledge the unspeakable horrors of the past and there is no single solution. But rather than ask ourselves when will the hatred end, perhaps the better question is, where can I help the healing start?

Fort Wayne The Journal Gazette