47 pages • 1 hour read
Kristen GreenSomething Must Be Done About Prince Edward County
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Effects of Racism
This is the overarching theme of the book. The legacy of racism in America, of course, dates back to slavery and the country’s founding. Even after emancipation, blacks and whites received different treatment under the law, perpetuating a system of racial segregation. When the all-white private school Prince Edward Academy is established after the Supreme Court ruling to integrate schools, the surrounding community continues to be divided—only now black students receive no education at all. The direct effect is illiteracy: A 1963 study revealed a 20-percent increase in the illiteracy rate of black students through age 22.
There were other consequences to the schools’ closing, too. Black families were broken apart. Some black parents sent their children to live with relatives in other states or to the program run by Kittrell College in North Carolina. As a result, some families are separated for good. Elsie Lancaster’s daughter Gwen, for instance, never returns to Farmville as a young person after being sent to school in Massachusetts. Even when the public schools reopen in 1964, the students remain racially divided, as most of the white children continue to attend Prince Edward Academy.
In addition, the effects of racism on the community of Farmville and surrounding areas run deep and wide, as black and white residents continue to distrust each other to the present day. Only very recently, with the help of programs at the Moton Museum and remediation by the state, has the community started to come together to heal.
Healing from Racism
The book suggests that racism’s effects and injustices can be overcome but only with effort. When the county leaders mount a courthouse plaque proclaiming regret for past actions, one black resident says that alone isn’t enough: “You can’t just put a plaque out and then nobody talk to each other. You have to come together as a community” (251).
The Moton Museum promotes this type of community healing through a series of educational programs. For example, the museum hosts interviews with former black student Mickie Pride and former Prince Edward Academy teacher Rebecca Butcher for a radio show. For Pride, participating in the interview is transformative: She realizes her lingering anger over the school closings is unproductive and that her efforts are better spent sharing and discussing her experience.
Societal Change
Traditions, mores, prejudices, and injustices can all span decades if society doesn’t make a conscious and deliberate effort to change them. However, Green also repeats a constant, underlying refrain in the book about how considerable change can take place simply with the passage of time. The sections about Green’s daughters remind us that new generations can sweep away long-held norms. The greatest change is demographic, and along with it, social mores are changing and old taboos such as interracial marriage are falling away. Time is not the only factor at play of course, but societal changes no one could foresee even in Green’s parents’ generation are suddenly happening fast. For Green, certainly in terms of creating greater openness and tolerance, the healing power of time is a source of optimism.
