Prison Phone Justice

November—December 2012

Ms. K to the FCC: ‘Cut Phone Rates For Prison Inmates’
By Charles Robideau
As a chill wind whipped across the
courtyard outside the Federal Communications Commission office in
Washington, D.C., shortly after noon
on Thursday, Nov. 15, Lillie BranchKennedy (known to Richmonders as
“Ms. K”) stepped to a microphone.
“I’m here to talk about the high
cost of prison phone calls and what
they’ve meant for my family,” she
told about 75 demonstrators at a rally
organized by the national group
Strong Families, Safe Communities.
“Fair rates, Now!” chanted the
crowd, voicing the rally’s demand
that the FCC order states to stop telephone companies from charging exorbitant rates for telephone calls from
prison inmates to their families.

Lillie Branch-Kennedy (Ms. K)
addresses rally at FCC headquarters
(photo from Center for Media Justice)

Ms. K related that what she
called her family’s “prison telephone nightmare” began in 2002
when her son, at age 24 while attending college, was convicted of

accessory to robbery and imprisoned
at Wallens Ridge, a high security
prison in the farthest southwest corner of the state, over 200 miles from
home.
“Telephone calls became the only
way to stay connected to our son,”
she said. “It was one of the only ways
for him to keep his sanity, and mine
as well. These phone calls were all I
had because visitation was limited
due to how far the prison was and a
lack of accessible transportation.
“So began the daily calls from our
son to us. I thought these were normal collect calls that would cost 25
cents to approximately $1.99. Imagine our shock when we received our
first bill from MCI, the prison telephone company – a bill for $226.50.
Continued on Page 6

RPEC Auction
Combines Fun
And Fund-Raising
By Grant E. Rissler
Gales of laughter and generous
bids swept the room repeatedly at the
Annual RPEC Auction on November
10. The crowd, including Congressman Bobby Scott, enjoyed great
food, a live auction and separate
silent auction for several hundred
choice items donated by RPEC members. “It’s fun!” said Torenzo Hill, a
first time attendee. “People are seriContinued on Page 4

Another bid in the silent action.

Photos by Grant E. Rissler

RPECnews
RPECnews
is a publication of the
Richmond Peace Education Center
3500 Patterson Avenue
Richmond, VA 23221
Phone: (804) 232-1002
E-mail: rpec@rpec.org
RPEC Web Page:
http://www.rpec.org

RPEC Staff
Executive Director: Adria Scharf
Asst. to the Director:
Paul Fleisher
Conflict Resolution Coordinator:
Santa Sorenson
Office Manager: Johnnie J. Taylor
Administrative Assistant: Dana Snead

2012 Board of Directors
Chair: Ellie Meleski
Vice-chair: Zandra Rawlinson
Treasurer: Gordon Davies
Secretary: Anne-Marie McCartan
Renee Hill
Tony Scott
Cricket White
John Williamson
Charol Shakeshaft
Anne Weber
Amy Woo
Maryam Ansari
Dwayne Bennett
Kenneth Dance
Lucretia McCully
Patrice Schwermer
Elizabeth Wong

Newsletter Committee
Editor: Charles Robideau
ccrobideau@gmail.net
Bill Gerow
John Gallini
Judy Bennett
Adria Scharf
Francis Woodruff
John Williamson
Renee Hill
Robin Farmer
Santa Sorenson
Jennifer Garvin-Sanchez
Thad Williamson
Opinions and announcements in RPECnews
are those of the individual writers and are not
necessarily endorsed by RPEC.
RPECnews is published 6 times per year and
has a circulation of approximately 1100. We
welcome article and calendar submissions.

Page 2

Reflection
Adria Scharf
Director, Richmond Peace Education Center
At my polling place at Maymont Elementary School the line of people
stretched the entire length of one hallway wall and back down the other side.
There were elderly people with canes. Parents with babies. Dozens in work
attire, late for their jobs thanks to the long 90 minute wait. Someone at the far
end of the hallway actually passed out after standing for an hour; the paramedics were called.
Voting, let’s face it, wasn’t exactly easy. For some frail citizens, it literally
posed a danger to their health. For others, long lines meant lost wages. The
state’s new ID requirements placed an added burden on many. There was
plenty of justifiable cause for complaint. But there were remarkably few complaints in that line. None, in fact, that I heard.
What struck me most about Election Day was the people. Not the candidates.
But the people. It's unwise to pin all your hopes and dreams on the election of
any specific candidate, however decent they may be and however much better
they are in key respects than the available alternative. But I for one will gladly pin my hopes and dreams on the people in that line; on my friends and
neighbors and the millions like them who mobilized on November 6th to have
a say in our political process, despite its flaws.
The majority of this country seeks a much fairer society and a better democracy than we have. If we, the great diverse majority of this country, dig in our
heels and insist on having a say, not just on election day but on a consistent
basis; if we saw a mass permanent mobilization on the scale that we saw voter
turnout on November 6th. . . .then there would be no limits to what is possible
for our country and the world. Indeed that may be our only hope.

Peace, and thanks, to all!
All of us at the Richmond Peace Education Center join in wishing you a warm
season’s greetings. May 2013 be a peaceful year for you, your families, our
community and the world!
Thank you for your end-of-year gifts. You may make your contribution by
clicking “Donate” on the website, www.rpec.org, or by mailing a check.
Thank you for helping RPEC start 2013 on a strong footing.

Our Mission
The Richmond Peace Education Center is working to build a more
peaceful and just community in the Richmond, Virginia area. Since
its founding in 1980, the center has been a leading voice for nonviolence and social justice, offering programs on conflict resolution and
violence prevention, racial justice, and global issues. RPEC needs
your involvement. Contact the office to plug in: rpec@rpec.org or
232-1002. Together, we can build a more peaceful and just community and world.

RPECnews

Book Discussion On Israel-Palestine
Join the Richmond Peace Education Center for a program about Israel-Palestine on Thursday, Feb. 7, at
6:30 p.m. The discussion will center
around the book The
Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the
Heart of the Middle
East, by Sandy Tolan.
It will be held at the
First Unitarian Universalist Church of
Richmond (1000
Blanton Avenue).
With this program,
the Peace Center
seeks to develop a
perspective of both
peoples' histories in a
way that lays the
foundation for deeper
understanding of the current conflict.
We invite Peace Center members
and the broader Richmond community to read this book in preparation for
our community discussion. The event
is free and open to the public.
The book tells the true stories of
two families. The Palestinian family
lived in the village of al-Ramla. They
built a house and grew a lemon tree
in the courtyard. When the family
was driven out during the 1948 war
that established Israel’s independence, a family of Bulgarian Jews

fleeing Hitler's Europe took over
the property, which they were told
had been “abandoned.” Drawing on
interviews, Tolan reconstructs the
stories of both families.
The Feb. 7 event
will include commentary from Middle East historian
Michael Fischbach
of Randolph Macon
College.
The Lemon Tree
is available from
RPEC (email
rpec@rpec.org or
call 232-1002), or
the public libraries.
It can also be ordered as an e-book.
The Henrico Public Library system
lends it as an audio book.
An excerpt and an interview
with the author can be found here:
http://www.npr.org/books/
titles/138071916/the-lemon-treeanarab-a-jew-and-the-heart-ofthemiddle-east#excerpt.
Please let us know if you will
attend the discussion Feb. 7 so that
we have some idea in advance of
the group size.
To RSVP, email rpec@rpec.org
or call 232-1002.

RYPP Youth Leaders Finish CR Training
Congratulations to our 2012-2013
class of Richmond Youth Peace Project Conflict Resolution trainers. All
of these teens completed 15 hours of
conflict resolution and leadership
training Sept. 29 and 30. They are:
Jamillia Al-Malik, Nikiti Arbogast,
Anousheh Bakhti-Suroosh, Jordan
Blackstone, Anna Brodzik, Tatyana

Burrell, Indigo Chandler, Jamie
Doyle, Niasia Ellis, Nina Gates, Xavier Green, Chloe Hogan, Bryanna
Holly, Nicholas Horsman, Sukana
Islam, Yasim Islam, Ashley James,
Stuart Lytle, Stephanie Martin, Rakeem Morris, Josie Reiderer, Jerrell
Sanders, Priya Sarkar, Savannah
Smith, and Rohan Tomer.

Artists Invited To
‘Generation Dream’
. Generation Dream 2013 is the
Richmond Youth Peace Project's annual Educoncert honoring the life and
legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is part of Richmond's annual Living
the Dream commemoration.
We are looking for talented young
artists to offer performances of up to
five minutes: singers, instrumental
musicians and groups, dance, short
dramatic presentations, and spoken
word. All presentations must reflect
Dr. King's message of peace, nonviolence and social justice.
Two performances are set:
--Friday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m. at Richmond Community High School, 201
E. Brookland Park Blvd.
--Friday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m., at the
Richmond Public Library, 101 E.
Franklin St.
We are also considering taking this
year’s show “on the road” for a third
performance.
Artists may be asked to perform in
one or both shows, depending on
availability and number of acts.
Auditions are required. Young people (and their adult mentors) interested in auditioning should
email rypp@rpec.org.

CR Workshops Completed
In the past several weeks RPEC
Conflict Resolution trainers have
completed workshops with Wingnut,
Asbury United Methodist Youth
Leaders, and a HROC Advanced
Training for the community.
Upcoming workshops are with
Tahweed Prep School, Peter Paul
Development Center, Life Changers
Mental Health and Supportive Services, a HROC Basic Workshop and
a HROC Training for Trainers 1
Workshop.

Page 3

RPECnews

RPEC Auction joins fun, fund-raising
Continued from Page 1

ous [about bidding]. I didn’t think
that many people would participate.”
Hill, as many others at the gathering, was invited by friends or family
to attend the event, which sold out
for the second year in a row.
“The community has supported
the event year after year, and that’s
beautiful,” said RPEC director Adria
Scharf, describing the auction-goers
as “a mixture of long-term Peace
Center members who remember
when the auction was a held in a little
church, and new people who join
every year.”
The auction raises about 14 percent of RPEC’s annual budget, this
year netting approximately $17,500
from ticket sales and the 147 attendees who registered as bidders.
The total net may exceed last year’s,
making the auction one of the strongest, if not the strongest, the center has
had, Scharf said.

Page 4

Lia Scholl, another first time attendee remarked, “the quality of auction items is amazing and the crowd is
a lot of fun.”
Shanella Weatherless, a youth volunteer with the Richmond Youth
Peace Project (RYPP) agreed. “It’s
fun to meet people you didn’t know”
and to be of service at the same time,
she said. Fifteen volunteers from
RYPP, many trained as conflict resolution workshop leaders, were on hand
to help out.
Volunteers like Shanella and Bill
Weber are the backbone of the event,
which is organized by a volunteer
committee. “I’m here because it’s for
a worthy cause,” said Weber.
“Conflict resolution is something
there’s plenty of need for in our world
– an outfit like this that can supply it is
priceless.”
During a short program, four winners of the annual peace essay contest
were recognized for their essays,

along with the 2012 Peacemakers of
the Year, Lori Haas and Andrew
Goddard – tireless advocates for preserving and strengthening Virginia’s
gun laws through the Virginia Center
for Public Safety.
Support for RPEC was evident in
the generous bids – Thai dinners for
four attracted winning bids of $150,
and three nights at a Duck, N.C.,
home went for $390. The highest
value bid was $1,600 for a full week
at a beach house in the Outer Banks.
All of the funds raised go to support RPEC’s programming which
reaches between four and five thousand people a year, with the equivalent of two staff members and a modest budget.
“We need your support to make
the programs possible,” Scharf told
the audience. “We believe that peace
and justice are not pie in the sky and
that we can change our world to one
that is a lot freer of violence than the
one we have today.”

RPECnews

RPEC’s 2012 Peacemakers Ready for General Assembly
By Charles Robideau
RPEC’s Peacemakers of the Year
for 2012, Lori Haas and Andy Goddard, aren’t resting on their laurels.
Since they were honored for their
efforts to curb gun violence, they
have been working tirelessly in that
cause, through their leadership of the
Center for Public Safety, based in
Chantilly, and as individual advocates.
With the 2013 session of the Virginia General Assembly looming,
their primary current concern is to
prepare to counter the inevitable
flood of pro-gun and anti-gun control legislation from the National
Rifle Association and its local backers, the Virginia Citizens Defense
League.
During the 2012 General Assembly, Andy, Lori and their allies followed 65 bills, Andy notes. Of those
bills, 30 would have weakened gun
control laws. “We stopped 23 of
them,” Andy said, while seven were
adopted. Of 12 bills submitted to
strengthen gun controls, all failed.
While bills for the upcoming
2013 session have yet to be filed,
Andy and Lori are on the lookout for
some especially dangerous measures.
Of particular concern on the
watch list would be an introduction
in Virginia of the “Stand Your
Ground” legislation that was adopted
in Florida and was deemed a crucial
factor in the murder of Trayvon Martin. Since its debut in Florida, “Stand
Your Ground” has turned up in 20
other states and the term has begun
appearing in the legislative wish lists
of Virginia gun advocates, who have
until now been focused on enhancing
the existing “Castle Doctrine.”
Lori had a close look at “Stand
Your Ground” in September when
she travelled to Florida to participate

in hearings on the law held by a
special task force created by Florida
Gov. Rick Scott.
The task force was led by supporters of the law, and what Lori
heard during two days of testimony
was more support. When she addressed the group she knew that flat
opposition would be futile, so she
urged only that it was “morally responsible to examine the issue,”
and that the task force should endorse “the most reforms that could
save the most lives.”
As Lori anticipated, when the
task force issued a report in early
November its first recommendation
was that “all persons have a fundamental right to stand their ground
and defend themselves from attack
with proportionate force in every
place they have a lawful right to be
and are conducting themselves in a
lawful manner.”
Lori noted also that since “Stand
Your Ground” was enacted the rate
of “justifiable homicide” has tripled
in Florida, with Trayvon Martin one
of many victims.

MLK Day Rally Jan. 21
When RPEC members start
filling out their calendars for
January, 2013, they should raise
a flag on Monday, January 21 –
Martin Luther King Day. That’s
the day for the annual rally of
gun control advocates at the Bell
Tower by the State Capitol,
sponsored by the Center for Public Safety. This will be the 20th
such rally.
The event will begin at 2 p.m.
Participants will no doubt be
surrounded and mocked by gun
advocates with holstered weapons on their hips.

Lori has also traveled to Aurora,
Colorado, where on July 20 twelve
people were killed and 58 injured in a
mass shooting in a movie theater, and
Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where on August 5 seven people died in a mass
shooting at a Sikh Temple. At each
place Lori met with survivors and
relatives of the victims, “welcoming
them to the sad club of survivors,”
she said ruefully.
Another legislative threat high on
Andy’s watch list is a possible attempt by the gun lobby to bring to
Virginia a constitutional amendment
that was recently adopted in Louisiana. This would apply a standard of
“strict scrutiny” to any gun-related
legislation. This would require courts,
if asked, to determine whether gun
laws meet a “compelling government
interest,” failing which they would be
declared unconstitutional. If such an
amendment should be adopted in Virginia, Andy explained, “this would
put at risk any restrictions now in
place.”
Andy and Lori will again be pushing a bill to require background
checks for any gun purchases, not just
those at gun shops and shows, but
also those via internet. Most of their
legislative work will be trying to prevent bad pro-gun legislation. “If nobody does the defense, they’ll get
everything they want, and that would
not be a good outcome.”
Page 5

RPECnews

Ms. K to FCC. . .
Continued from Page 1

During the first four years we spent
over $10,000 to stay in touch with
my son – for him to hear a friendly
and loving voice and for me as a
mother to know that my child is in
the best of health, best of spirits and
safe.”
Today, after six more years of
phone calls from her son, Ms. K’s
husband estimates the family has
spent over $25,000 in phone bills.
“The cost of the prison telephone
system is an unfair burden on the
children, families and loved-ones
who are trying to stay connected,
trying to support the prisoner through
self-help initiatives,” she said.
“These prison phone calls should

Demonstrators among Ms. K’s audience at the FCC.

Page 6

exist for the purpose of prisoner
rehabilitation and successful reentry, not to making companies like
Global Tel Link richer.”
Global Tel*Link (GTL), which
is the prison phone contractor for
Virginia and 19 other states, is the
current corporate entity of what
began as MCI. When Ms. K’s son
placed his first call home, MCI had
merged with WorldCom. In 2007,
MCI WorldCom’s prison phone
division was acquired by GTL,
which in 2009 was itself swallowed
by a consortium of Veritas Capital
and GS Direct, the latter of which is
owned by Goldman Sachs. So it
seems likely that some part of what
Ms. K pays for her son’s phone
calls ends up in the pocket of the
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs.

But the greater drain on the prisoners and their families is not what the
companies pocket, but what the companies are required to kick back to the
states that hire them to set up the
phone systems
The extent of these kickback arrangements has been researched and
tabulated by Prison Legal News, a
prison rights organization based in
West Brattleboro, VT. According to
PLN, Virginia is one of 40 states in
which prison phone companies pay
“commissions” to their states. The
states that don’t require such commissions are a minority, including California, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska,
New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and South Carolina.
Continued on Page 7

Photo from the Center for Media Justice.

RPECnews

Ms. K to FCC. . .
Continued from Page 6

These commissions aren’t voluntary; they are required by the states
as conditions for granting the contracts. Virginia’s current rate of 35
percent of the phone revenue, is middle-ground, compared to rates ranging from 61.5 percent in Alabama to
20 percent in New Hampshire.
In 2005, the contract between Virginia and the phone company set the
commission (kickback) rate at 41
percent, requiring that “The Contractor shall provide revenue to the
DOC/DJJ (Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice) on a
monthly basis, based upon monthly
telephone billings.”
Within that contract, the company
was asked to make certain commitments. One of those requests:
“State how the Offeror will ensure
that the Commonwealth is getting the
lowest available rates.”
The company’s answer: “MCI’s
single largest cost of providing service is commission payments to the
Commonwealth. MCI is confident
that the Department of Corrections
can get the lowest available rates by
eliminating commission payments.”
A year later, in 2006, the contract
was amended to cut the commission
rate from 41 percent to 35 percent.
According to Prison Legal News,
the current rate in Virginia for inmate
phone calls within the state is $2.25
plus 25 cents per minute. For interstate calls the rate is $2.40 plus 43
cents per minute. Local calls are one
dollar a call. These rates have yielded commission payments of at least
$4 million a year to the state in the
last three years. In other states, calls
can cost $3 to $4 to connect plus 89
cents a minute after that.
The organized protest against high
prison phone rates began in 2003
when a grandmother, Martha Wright,

who was blind and in her eighties,
petitioned the FCC after her grandson was sent to prison. The ”Wright
Petition,” is still before the FCC.
At the November 15 rally, the
protesters were heartened when an
FCC Commissioner, Mignon Clyburn, announced that the FCC has
decided to circulate a Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking on the
Wright Petition. Clyburn also accepted petitions with thousands of
names urging the agency to crack
down on prison phone rates.
“FCC, we need your leadership
now,” Ms. K summed up. “Your
action at the national level will
make a difference to what happens
in Virginia. Pass the Wright Petition and level the playing field for

families like mine that are just trying
to keep our families strong.”
Resource Information Help for the
Disadvantaged (RIHD) the organization that Lillie Branch-Kennedy (Ms.
K) founded and directs, is active on
many more issues of prisoner rights
than the cost of phone calls.
RIHD organizes trips of family
members to far-off prisons, trips that
often require a 24-hour round trip. Ms.
K keeps up correspondence with inmates, and RIHD aids prisoners after
release, especially helping them preparing requests for restoration of voting and other rights.
To learn more about RIHD, visit
www.rihd.org.

Ex-Felons, Now Voteless, Could Decide Elections
In Virginia in the recent election,
3,429,547 citizens cast votes for
either President Obama or the challenger Mitt Romney. For every ten
voters who cast ballots for president, there was one Virginian who
couldn’t vote because he or she was
an ex-felon.
The vote margin in the presidential race was 50 percent for Obama
and 49 percent for Romney, a difference represented by 50,631
votes. There are approximately
350,000 Virginia ex-felons who
can’t vote, seven times the number
that decided the result in Virginia.
Also denied the right to vote are
about 50,000 current prisoners.
To regain the right to vote, an ex
-felon must petition the governor
for restoration. Bob McDonnell has
been more liberal than other Virginia governors in restoring rights, approving petitions by about 3,800
former felons. But that hardly
keeps up with the swelling rolls of
newly freed ex-felons.
Among those who couldn’t vote
in the recent election was Sa-ad El-

Amin, the former Richmond City
Councilman. El-Amin lost his right
to vote in 2003 when he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 37
months in federal prison.
In July, 2012, he filed a federal
lawsuit, challenging the denial of
rights to ex-felons. In a press conference, El-Amin said the lawsuit was
not just for himself. “If everybody
does not get their rights restored, I
don’t want mine restored,” he said.
In his petition to the U.S. District
Court in Richmond, El-Amin laid out
a history of the constitutional and
legislative acts that have inhibited
blacks from voting in Virginia.
“Over the years, the Virginia General Assembly has turned a blind eye
and deaf ear to the national trend of
restoring voting rights to ex-felons.”
When restoration bills are presented, he said, “these bills are routinely
tabled and have yet to get even out of
the appropriate committees to be voted on. There is clearly no political
will in the General Assembly to pass
legislation restoring the voting rights
of ex-felons.”
Page 7

RPECnews

Book Review by Paul Fleisher

Come August, Come Freedom:
The Bellows, the Gallows and the Black General Gabriel
by Gigi Amateau
Candlewick Press, September 2012, (Ages 12-up)
One of the least-known stories from our nation’s
history is that of the widespread Black resistance to
enslavement. From the very beginnings of European
settlement of the new world, Africans and their descendants fought against the cruelties of slavery with
every means available to them: work slowdowns and
sabotage; escape from plantations to native settlements
or communities of free Maroons hidden in the wilderness; even desperate acts of suicide and infanticide.
Young Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds need to hear these stories, to gain a more complete understanding of our shared history, as well as the
current state of our union. Richmond author Gigi Amateau has bravely taken up this task with her new historical novel for young people, Come August, Come Freedom.
Amateau tells the story of the enslaved Gabriel, who
lived just outside Richmond, Virginia. Gabriel, a
skilled blacksmith, learned to read and write as a child.
As a young man, he was inspired by stories of the
American patriots who had recently rebelled against the
English king, as well as contemporary reports of the
Black general Toussaint L’Ouverture and his successful
revolution against the French slavemasters of Haiti.
In 1800, with the support of his beloved Nan and a
small core of family members and others from neighboring farms, Gabriel planned a daring armed rebellion
to win freedom. He secretly began forging swords and
other weapons. He and his followers would seize arms
from local armories, capture Virginia’s governor, James
Monroe, and demand freedom for the enslaved people
of Virginia. Their motto was “Death or Liberty.”
His smithy’s craft enabled Gabriel to move throughout central Virginia, as he “hired out” to various farms
and plantations. As he traveled, he recruited people to
his cause. Eventually, hundreds of recruits were ready
to follow him. Gabriel believed poor whites and Native
Americans would also join the rebellion once it began.
Had it not been for the confusion created by torrential

Page 8

rain and flooding on the assigned day of the revolt, Gabriel’s scheme might very well have succeeded. Instead, the
plan was postponed and betrayed. More than two dozen
of the plotters, including Gabriel himself, were captured
and hanged.
Amateau imagines Gabriel’s life from infancy through
its violent end. Her storytelling is historically accurate
and detailed. Much of the book centers on Gabriel’s love
for Nan, a worker enslaved at a neighboring plantation.
These sections provide the deepest glimpse into Gabriel
as a person. Unfortunately, there is almost no remaining
record of his actual words. Gabriel must surely have been
a powerful, charismatic leader, but Amateau imagines less
of this aspect of his character than we might like.
Although she is writing for young people, Amateau
doesn’t hide the brutalities of slavery. The story she tells
includes beatings and floggings, the hunger and deprivation enslaved people were forced to endure, the sale and
separation of families, and even references to slave breeding and the threat of rape by white slaveholders. Her story will help young readers understand that surviving such
abuse was a regular part of the lives of enslaved people.
Amateau chooses her words carefully—for example,
she rarely uses the term slave but rather identifies Africans as the people or bondsmen. Although Gabriel and
Nan’s story is brutal and tragic, Amateau manages to tell
it in terms suitable for adolescent readers — at least those
willing to face the painful facts of our nation’s history.
Historical documents — some authentic, some imagined
— interspersed throughout the text help complete the story. And her writing turns lyrical at times, as she describes
the natural beauties of the James River, and the hills and
fields where the enslaved people find respite.
Come August, Come Freedom tells an important
American story, in an honest and uncompromising way
that will touch the hearts and open the eyes of many
young readers. Amateau’s novel should generate some
challenging and much needed discussions in our country’s
living rooms and classrooms.