Creative nonfiction on the true story of Coleman College, a thriving black college founded in Gibsland, Louisiana in 1887 that disappeared from history after a suspicious fire. The author traces his family line to the college's founder, Oliver Coleman. The book contains little-known history about prominent figures such as Booker T. Washington. The author wishes for this book to restore the college to history.
"There is more, but much of what is left is carried in memory, oral tradition, the echoes of modern day griots. The history substantiates that education was always a part of the African as well as African American heritage. So I chose to tell this story not as a scholarly thesis or a historian's bestseller, but as a first-person memoir in the voice of Oliver Lewis Coleman. A narrative aspiring to find an answer to the question . . . why? What motivated Oliver Lewis and Mattie Anna to be the founders of a school for freed slaves during an era of such unforgiving and challenging conditions?
This is a "historical narrative," inspired by real individuals and factual events rooted in the empirical essence of the times. It bears the emotional truth of racism. It reflects the determination of two Africans, their forced status as immigrants and their legacy as Americans. It demonstrates faith in humanity. It expresses the belief in what the power of knowledge can achieve.
This is my inheritance . . . This is America's history . . .
This is not heroic prose or a saga of generational wealth . . . it is a story of Generational Pride."
-John R. Marks III