A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wikerson Sexton

  A Kind of Freedom tells the story of three generations of an African-American family in New Orleans at three different points in time.

Evelyn is the daughter of a well-to-do, well respected family. Her father is a doctor and Evelyn is studying to be a nurse when she meets Renard, a young man from the poorer side of town. Renard has dreams of becoming a doctor. Evelyn and Renard’s courtship is sweet but Evelyn’s father can’t help but worry what kind of life Renard can provide for his daughter.

Jackie, Evelyn and Renard’s daughter, is a struggling single mother in the eighties. Actually, that isn’t completely accurate. Jackie isn’t single – she’s married but her husband has been out of the picture, preferring crack to his family. Then one day he comes back clean, sober, and ready to resume the life he and Jackie once had. Jackie wants to believe that such a thing is possible.

T.C., is an expert at growing marijuana. He probably would make a great scientist. Instead, post Katrina and post jail, he struggles to figure out what kind of man he is going to be going forward. 

We only see this family at particular times in their lives – in 1944, 1986, and 2010 but Sexton's writing says so much in the gaps between generations. A Kind of Freedom is a story about race in America without ever actually saying so directly. There is hope and disappointment, but unfortunately more of the latter and less of the former. I'm glad I read this, even if it left me a little depressed.