A Different Drummer, by William Melvin Kelley **ONLINE MEETING**
Overview
Join online for a provocative discussion of a civil-rights era novel and deepen your understanding of race, power, and storytelling with fellow readers.
Details
Set in the deep south, in 1957, amid the racial hostility and resistance of the early civil rights era, A Different Drummer is the extraordinary story of Tucker Caliban, a quiet, determined descendant of an African chief who for no apparent reason destroys his farm and heads for parts unknown--setting off a mass exodus of the state's entire Black population.
Significantly Kelley’s black characters, including Tucker, are seen only through the eyes of the white majority, their motives never explicitly stated. Rather, Kelley reveals the necessity of that seizure of power—the sudden refusal of African-Americans to continue living under conditions of subordination.
First published in 1962, A Different Drummer is written by the late African-American writer William Melvin Kelley, who has been described as the "The Lost Giant of American Literature". .... Considered part of the Black Arts Movement, he is known for his satirical explorations of race relations in America.