Perhaps in another time and
place, this would have been the
sweet story of summer love. Gaynell McGowan returns to her home
town on her college break filled with new ideas and lots of ideas for her future. She meets and falls madly in love with Willis Jones, a young man from Chicago fulfilling his dream of becoming a veterinarian. Unfortunately, the year is 1963. Gaynell’s home town is Beulah, Alabama. This is a town being torn apart by talk that the local high school is going to become integrated. Gaynell and Willis never had a chance. The Sweet Shade of a Chinaberry Tree not only reminds of the not so distant past but also serves as a wake up call about contemporary issues of
racism. Although the actual story is fictional, the author has used real
historical events and real people within the story to add a deeper sense of realism and to educate the reader about the circumstances of this time and place in American history.