Book Review: "The Color of Love: A Mother's Choice in the Jim Crow South" by Gene Cheek

picture from Amazon.com

Based on a true story that happened right here in North Carolina, in The Color of Love, Gene Cheek tells his story through this tear-jerking autobiography. Born in Winston-Salem, your Gene faces the true meaning of love, hatred and kindness in the deep south of the 1960s. Born into poverty, and with only his mother to guide him, Gene weaves his way through life the best he can, dealing with an alcoholic father, Jesse Cheek, and the idea of racism. Soon, Gene learns how to forgive the ones that have hurt him the most, but he can't help but harbor a deep hatred for his father and blames Jesse for everything that has happened to him and his mother. Young Gene has also learned that you should never judge a person by the color of their skin. As Gene grows older, everything seems to be going right for his mom and himself, but then, Gene's mother Sally made a choice that could tear mother and son apart. Eventually, Sally would have to make a terrible decision.

In the 1960s, interracial relationships were looked down upon and most of the time, people would act upon them in violence. In Winston-Salem, interracial relationships were illegal, as well as marriage and living with a person of color if you were white. Cornelius Tucker, or Tuck, and Sally Cheek make a daring decision when the two decide they love each other. After Tuck and Sally are seen together by Jesse, it didn't take long for their relationship to attract unwanted attention, including a house call from the Ku Klux Klan. Family members, neighbors and lawmen turned their backs on the couple, and Sally and Tuck were left to fend off the hatred on their own.

I liked this book because it was nonfiction. The events in this book actually happened right here in North Carolina. This book was hard to put down too, because I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. Were things going to get better or worse? Was Sally going to be OK? What about Gene? The Color of Love is an excellent book to read because it shows the reality of racism and how it affected so many people and how some people were kind while some remained hateful toward others.