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Dear Reader, Love Author: A Note From Jewell Parker Rhodes

Dear Reader, Love Author: A Note From Jewell Parker Rhodes

As a kid, movie Westerns were a big deal. Of course, I was unaware of racist and
sexist tropes then and the lack of representation.


Nonetheless, the characters and themes transported me. The ongoing battle of
the law versus criminality, what constitutes a “good” man in the West, and the
conflicts between homesteaders/farmers/ranchers and men who lived and died
by the gun, transported me as Black girl living in an urban ghetto. Amazing and
strange. Yet, raised by my grandmother, the theme of finding and keeping
“home” resonated with me. Likewise, the fierceness of a “good” person (like
Grandma) protecting the weaker and innocent moved me. Living in a female-
dominated household, I was also intrigued by the conflicts and camaraderie in
the world of men. It reassured me to think how men of power and violence could
become protectors of the vulnerable. Deep beneath the surface, I sensed, too, I
think, how “toxic masculinity” of men who took up the gun to fight could become
trapped (even when they greatly desired community) in their lonely heroic or
antinero roles.


High Noon and The Magnificent Seven (based on Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai) are
wonderful Western classics.


But it was Shane and 3:10 To Yuma that emotionally devastated me. Young
protagonists navigate their way to adulthood, learning more deeply about their
fathers’ limitations and testing their fathers’ restraint while the world teaches
violence as a seductive means to an end. I still cry when the boy in Shane calls,
“Shane, come back, Shane. Come back.”


My character Caesar is the man trapped in the world of guns. But my character
Will doesn’t have the same innocence as the young boy in Shane. Though both
boys experience harsh socioeconomic realities, Will also navigates a racist world.
There can be no innocence when your father and grandfather were once slaves
and skin color is an impediment to fair-paying work and land ownership. This is
why Will tells Caesar, “Go.” His rite of passage isn’t just a singular march but a
communal one. He acquires a new possible destiny for all Black people.

Having lived my adult life in the West, I had the privilege of learning about Black
cowboys, Buffalo soldiers, and Bass Reeves. My call to write a Western solidified
when research proved that Black people had participated in the Oklahoma Land
Rush. I’d never known that!


In 1998, I was the first to write an adult novel about the Tulsa Race Massacre.
HarperCollins Perennial reissued Magic City in May 2021, the 100th anniversary
of the massacre. Significantly, I was able to connect Black land rushers of 1889 to
descendants who built Greenwood, known as “the Black Wall Street.” In a span of
sixty-one years, Black people in the West had experienced the Civil War and the
ending of slavery, the delayed freedom of Juneteenth, the Oklahoma Land Rush,
and the massacre and demolition of the most prosperous Black town in America.
How could I not write about this?


I started to dream. As I sat on an outdoor patio with my husband, the opening
line: “My Father is a far-thinking man” popped into my head.


It wasn’t until the following spring that I realized that I had to make it clear,
thematically, that the Civil War never really ended. Caesar added a new
dimension to the duality of gunslingers versus ranchers and farmers. How does a
soldier who fought for equality and freedom in the Civil War set aside violence in
a racist West? In Shane, other gunmen unrelentingly tested their mettle against
Shane as a means of enhancing their “quick-fire” prowess and “top dog”
masculinity. Caesar’s skin tone and his being a Northern officer layer gunfights
with vengeance, resulting in a more epic conflict on racial equality and justice.
While Will’s willingness to fire a gun to protect his home is important, his
choosing to live a self-determined, authentic life despite prejudice and even
familial expectations, makes him a hero. The grown men-Father, Grandpa, and
Caesar-with their experiences of slavery, war, and discrimination, set the stage
for a young Black boy to choose a path that encompasses his love for a horse and
a mule.


Warmly,

Jewell Parker Rhodes

Jewell Parker Rhodes

About the Author

Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes is the New York Times bestselling author of several books for youth, including Ghost Boys; Black Brother, Black Brother; Paradise on Fire; and Treasure Island: Runaway Gold. She is the recipient of many distinguished awards and honors, including the Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the Green Earth Book Award, an NAACP Image Award nomination, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Octavia E. Butler Award. Rhodes is the Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She invites you to connect with her at jewellparkerrhodes.com.

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