A Fine Line

Leola Jackson, born and bred in the Deep South, narrates her experiences as a black girl whose entire life was defined by Jim Crow boundary lines. These invisible lines, which were drawn and enforced by the authority of Southern laws and customs, told Leola and her friends where they could live, where they could go to school, where they could sit on a public bus, where they could sit and eat in a public place, where they were allowed to worship, and even how high their dreams and aspirations could take them. Leola never had many dreams. She always figured she’d grow up to become a housemaid just like her single-parent mom. However, in 1954 when Leola’s story begins, surprising things were happening in the nation, as well as inside Leola’s tiny world. The winds were whispering that changes, later known as the Civil Rights Movement, were coming that would soon transform the nation and especially black Americans’ lives forever.