Life Goes On As We Know It

Mona was an eight-year-old colored girl who was raised in Illinois and Wisconsin during the 1950s. Her father was an electrician and her mother raised her and her siblings in a segregated environment. This book describes her life in a family that is trying to make ends meet in a post–World War II era. Mona was born prematurely because her mother was raped by a relative, causing early labor. Despite her early entry into the world, she survived to live in the oppressed world of African Americans. She describes the family’s journeys to the South to visit relatives in Georgia. During these visits she witnessed a lynching and learned that colored people in the South had to behave in an even more subservient manner. Her family was further disrupted when she found out she had a half-brother. This book is unique because it is written from the perspective of an eight-year-old colored girl. All the stories in this book are true, but names have been changed to protect the identity of the family. The images evoked from her description of these life-changing events compel the reader to vividly understand the experience of colored people during these difficult times.

-- Rita Florence Williams