For Simon: A Journey into Truth and Reconciliation

by Molly Walling

Overview

And then what happened? For Simon: A Journey into Truth and Reconciliation follows an African American family, that of Simon Toombs, introduced to readers in Molly Walling's 2012 memoir, Death in the Delta. There she exposed a long-held family secret that Toombs died at the hands of her father and uncles. At that time, she thought her quest for knowledge and understanding had come to an end. Six months later Walling was contacted by Toombs's great-great-grandson, Gregory Woods, who was preparing to launch his career as a reporter for the ABC affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina. Woods revealed to her that Toombs had a daughter, Virginia, living in L.A. Not only that but her husband had been raised by the cook on the plantation where Walling's father grew up. Walling followed Woods's reportage of such horrific racially violent events as the death of Walter Scott and the massacre at the A.M.E Church in Charleston. She developed a deep connection to Toombs's descendants. This multigenerational story does not end in defeat, but rather speaks to the strength, resilience and deep faith that contributes to survival in African American families.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643883601
Publisher:	Mary F Walling
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Molly Walling is a writer and educator. She is the author of Death in the Delta: Uncovering a Mississippi Family Secret, named a Willie Morris book in memoir and biography. She has taught writing at Mars Hill University, University of North Carolina Asheville, and for the Great Smokies Writing Program. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

2021-09-09
In this nonfiction sequel, a woman recounts connecting with the descendants of a man who was killed by her father or uncle.

On the night of Dec. 12, 1946, the three Fields brothers—H.J. “Jay,” Tom, and Bill, heirs to their family’s plantation in the Mississippi Delta—went to town to shut down a nightspot frequented by the Black community. There was a confrontation, and one of the brothers shot and killed two Black men—Simon Toombs and David Jones. Jay (Walling’s father) was charged with manslaughter, but there was never a trial. This was the family secret revealed in the author’s Death in the Delta(2012), and Walling incurred the ire of most of her family for bringing the story to light. But a young member of another family was anxious to reach out to her. Gregory Woods, the great-great-grandson of Toombs, emailed the author, informing her that his relative had a daughter, Virginia, who was still alive and living in Compton, California, along with her daughter, Pat; her granddaughter, Latoya; and her great-grandson, Gregory. Woods invited Walling (who lived in Ashville, North Carolina) to come out to California to meet the family. Several weeks later, she was on a plane to Los Angeles. It was the beginning of a close friendship and a deeply personal journey for the author. She learned, and now shares with her readers, the complex and intertwined relationships that existed between the two families during the Jim Crow years in the Mississippi Delta. She paints a vivid, insightful portrait of the conflicting feelings of concern and inherent racism the Fields brothers showed toward the Black employees who worked for them as field hands and domestics. These early chapters, and her detailed follow-up of the Toombs family history, contain some of the book’s most compelling sections. As she proceeds to discuss more current incidents of racial violence, she is covering well-charted territory. Still, she writes with passion from the perspective of an emotionally challenging, growing awareness of the institutionalized White privilege that she enjoyed from birth.

A complicated, moving, and disturbing family account with contemporary relevance.

Kirkus Reviews