The Associated Press has moved a review of "The Class of '65" that conveys the themes of the book with the clarity and concision the wire service is known for. The piece, by Don Schanche Jr. of the AP's South Bureau, has already been picked up by ABC News, The Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newsday and others. According to Schanche, the author "expertly tells the story" of Greg Wittkamper (seen here), a white student punished for supporting desegregation, and of a Georgia community in turmoil, the larger civil rights struggle and an unexpected reconciliation decades later. "The reconciliation that follows in Auchmutey's compelling narrative is at times tentative and halting, but also filled with emotional power," Schanche writes. "And it appears to be still in progress. At the time of the reunion, it included only Wittkamper and his white classmates. The closing section of Auchmutey's book suggests another chapter yet to be written, as blacks and whites together make peace with the past."
Color-blind heroism
The Washington Post reviewed "The Class of '65" this weekend in a thoughtful, in-depth piece that raises a question I wrestled with myself: What do we make of a narrative set in the civil rights era whose hero is white? Donna Britt (shown here), a former syndicated columnist for the Post and author of the memoir "Brothers (and Me)," admits that she approached "The Class of '65" with some skepticism, wondering whether it was another "white savior" narrative like "Mississippi Burning," where the heroes were white FBI agents instead of the black people fighting back against terrorism. Having said that, Britt soon found herself pulled into the story of Greg Wittkamper, the white teenager who was persecuted in high school because of his beliefs and his support of the black students desegregating their high school. "The more I learned about Wittkamper's grit, the more I admired him," she writes. "Courage deserves acknowledgement, no matter what color it's wrapped in. My predominant 'why' became 'Why can't the rest of us be as brave?'" There were other brave young people during those difficult times in Georgia -- black and white -- and they all deserve our acknowledgement and admiration.
Between a fruit and a gadfly
"The Class of '65" has started to show up in bookstores a few days ahead of its publication date. The author's wife and part-time publicist, the lovely Pamela, spied the book on the shelves at the Barnes & Noble in the Edgewood shopping district in Atlanta, keeping company with Glenn Beck and a volume about Italy and its legendary lemons. A diverse neighborhood indeed.
Second printing!
John Grisham doesn't worry about 2nd printings.
When you write a book, you never know whether it's going to find an audience or disappear into the witness protection program. I learned this morning from my publisher (PublicAffairs) that The Class of '65 has gone into its second printing. We're not talking about John Grisham numbers here. Still, this is a good thing –- and days before its publication date. I had been concerned because the book showed up on Amazon earlier this week as "temporarily out of stock," which was good news and bad news: good because some people are buying it, bad because the retailer places little sippy-cup orders from publishers when we would prefer they place Big Gulp orders. More books are on the way! Stay thirsty, my friends.
Sneak preview
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an excerpt from The Class of '65 in the Sunday newspaper, where the first version of the story that grew into this book appeared in the fall of 2006. They produced a nifty video that includes one of my favorite parts of all this: one of Greg Wittkamper's classmates, David Morgan, reading part of his apology letter to Greg. I remember misting up as I listened to David read that letter into my digital recorder as we sat in his office in Perry, Georgia. The story is on the Living & Arts front under the title "The Scapegoat," part of the Personal Journeys feature that showcases some of the AJC's best narratives. Thanks, David, and thanks to Suzanne Van Atten, Elissa Benzie and everyone at the AJC, my alma mater.