One Night in Georgia, by Celeste O. Norfleet

In the heat of the summer of 1968 three college girls head out on a road trip, driving back to college in Atlanta.  It's a simple set-up, except that the girls are black, driving in a flashy convertible through the South.  Celeste O. Norfleet's novel One Night in Georgia is a work of fiction, but it contains plenty of "it certainly could have and probably did many times" moments.

These ladies (and their companion, a college student recruited by the narrator's step father to accompany them) take a trip that is as much as snapshot of race relations and history as it is a coherent narrative.  Much of the book is a history lesson, as the ladies have mini-debates about race and the issues of the day.  One lady is from old money, one is very fair-skinned, and the narrator is the daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer who was beaten to death by police as she watched.  Their male companion is a Vietnam vet.

They encounter lots of stereotypical members of both races in their travels.  The racist whites who lash out in anger that the black people touched their children, just after those same black people saved the children from drowning.  The neighborly white people who stand up against the racists.  The rude white people in the cafe who sling racist remarks.  The white waitress and her father, the sheriff, who defend the students, in part because the sheriff said black soldiers with whom he served saved his life.  The white racist police who arrest the group for no reason and take possession of their car.

All of this leads up to that "one night in Georgia" where everything changed for all of them.  Norfleet illustrates the impossible dilemmas that black people in the South experienced.  When a crime is committed in certain places and circumstances, a black person has no hope for justice.

One Night in Georgia is a passable story with some believable and some melodramatic moments.  The didactic nature of the novel is worthwhile, but frequently seems forced, detracting from the story.  The main character's romantic interest seemed too fast and counter to her nature, and their night of passion was a bit too graphic for a mainstream novel.  The novel is worth reading, especially if you're looking for a window into attitudes black people held about race in the 1960s, but qua novel it's not the greatest.



Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!