The Sacred Place: A Novel

Black, Daniel. The Sacred Place: A Novel.
New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008.
298 pp. $23.95 (hardcover)

In 1955, Clement Johnson, a fourteen year-old black boy from Chicago visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, walks into a local store to simply buy a cold drink, and his life is forever changed. If this plot line sounds familiar, it is; Daniel Black’s The Sacred Place is a fictionalized version of the tragic Emmett Till murder.

Clement, like Emmett Till, is accused of “disrespecting” a white woman. By refusing to place the nickel he had placed on the store counter instead on the clerk’s outreached hand, the boy unleashes a war of bigotry on himself and his family. Clement is inevitably abducted by the local sheriff and his cronies and the Johnson family is galvanized into action trying to save Clement’s life. Jeremiah, the family patriarch, gathers members of the black community together, saying, “We are here to do something ain’t neva been done long as I been livin’ here . . . . Bring colored folks together.” Decades of suffering from injustice, rapes, and murder bring the community together to stand in solidarity as a message to the white community of Money: “We jus come to talk to you ‘bout how we been livin’ in Money and to tell you how we gon live here from now on.”

Daniel Black effectively weaves a powerful story that is painful yet hopeful. The Sacred Place teaches many lessons about the power of faith and family, and the importance of maintaining your dignity and pride even when doing so is a dangerous choice. The Mississippi of the 1950s is effectively portrayed as a cruel and harsh place for black families, but even so, many of the characters in the book, both black and white, seem stereotyped. Most of the black characters are downtrodden, and the all of the whites are portrayed as ignorant, racist, and cruel. The supernatural elements in the book are sometimes distracting, reading more like a fairy tale than historical fiction. There are, however, many powerful moments in the story, making this book a recommended addition for both public and academic libraries.

Beth Richard
Assistant Librarian
Copiah-Lincoln Community College
Natchez Campus

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: August 10th, 2010