Primary Lessons

by Sarah Bracey White, Kevin Pilkington (Introduction)

Overview

Ripped from middle-class life in Philadelphia, and transplanted to a single-parent household in the segregated south, Sarah, a precocious black child struggles to be the master of her fate. She refuses to accept the segregation that tries to confine her—a system her mother accepts as the southern way of life. A brave memoir that testifies to the author’s fiery spirit and sense of self that sustained her through family, social and cultural upheavals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933880389
Publisher:	CavanKerry Press
Publication date:	09/03/2013
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

SARAH BRACEY WHITE, born in South Carolina, is a teacher, arts consultant and motivational speaker. She authored a poetry collection, Feelings Brought to Surface, and her essays have been published in many regional newspapers and in the following anthologies: Children of the Dream; Dreaming in Color, Living in Black and White; Aunties: 35 Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother; Gardening On A Deeper Level. She lives with her husband in Westchester County, N.Y.

What People are Saying About This

Amy Nathan

“In Primary Lessons, Sarah White recounts her childhood years in the 1950s and early 60s, from a brief, idyllic-seeming stay as a very young child with a beloved aunt in Philadelphia, to a return home to South Carolina to live with her siblings and her single mom, who was doing her best to hold the family together. Although the author chafed at the restrictions imposed by the Jim Crow South, she grows close to her mother and comes to understand the tough choices that had been made, but that doesn’t damper the author’s determination to leave those limitations behind and forge her own, more independent path.”

Ingrid Sturgis

“I first met Sarah Bracey White when she shared a portrait of her enterprising, entrepreneurial Aunt Susie. Though Susie shows up again in Primary Lessons, it is Saran’s voice that pulls the reader in. It’s also the story of the author’s legacy, so enriched by her aunt and her indomitable mom who, because of their flair and despite their flaws, imparted wisdom and dispensed love that helped Sarah become the amazing person revealed in this warm-hearted, truth-telling life journey.”