Whites Only

Whites Only by Artis Holder is a debut novel about the struggles of an elderly black couple who were forced into modern day slavery after being wrongfully accused of stealing a dime. The assigned living quarters was a small wooden shack behind the bowling alley. The novel also tells the story of the black pin boys during the early 60's and how they were physically and mentally abused by their Jim Crow South employers as well as the patrons.

The novel describes actual events of the Civil Rights Era, including the non-stop attempts by the Freedom Riders to invade the privacy of the southern establishment. Attempts that were often met with violence which resulted in serious bodily injury and jail time. Even after passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the southern establishment used local law enforcement to discourage and defeat the efforts of the Freedom Riders. Until finally, the playing field changed. But not without a good old southern fight.

As for the elderly black couple, they had always lived in fear since the horrible rape in the cold winter of 1930 that resulted in the birth of a child that the mother would never hold in her arms. Would she ever see the child again or would the infant be among the buried bodies behind that old wooden shed where the abolishment of slavery was only a dream. Who knows? Perhaps Whites Only.

-- Artis Holder