I loved this story. “Moonrise Over New Jessup” is a thought provoking fictional story about life in rural Alabama in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Through the pen of Alice Young, Jamila Minnicks masterfully addresses the issue of segregation vs desegregation by creating characters who champion the differing philosophies of the like of MLK Jr, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. She explores how these competing ideas affect community attitudes and politics and the strongly held views of individuals. Through Alice's life we get a glimpse into the nuances of the civil rights movement and the atrocities suffered by those who were then called Negro.

The town of New Jessup, in general, ascribes to the teachings of Booker T. Washington and is resistant to anyone with opposing views, but a new generation is coming that wants to adapt the philosophy a bit. Change proves difficult. As far as I've been able to tell the organization that New Jessup young people get involved with has a fictional name. Once I realized this it actually helped me stay with the story and stop trying to look at Google for more details on every issue. Most of the characters, both main and incidental are fictional, but the name of Sam Cooke singing his blues in Washington DC brings the story into real life. I quickly grew to love the main characters, Alice and Raymond, but perhaps my favorite character was Ms. Vivian of Taylor Made who seems to have done a stellar job of mentoring Alice into adulthood.....helping her to become a strong woman. Both Vivian and Alice set an example of how the current generation can work for the well being of future generations.

While the story is fictional it has great value as socially responsible literature.
I recommend to anyone who loves historical fiction, likes pondering why people believe as they do and book clubs who love discussing such.

Thank you to BookBrowse and Algonquin Books for the opportunity of reviewing a prepublication edition.