Red River

Gritty and harsh is Tademy's account of the massacre. The language of this account is not overly dramatic or verbose so the story is blunt, much like the lives and reactions of the people involved. The inclusion of pictures is a compelling addition and one that I appreciate very much.

A historical novel covering the Colfax Massacre of Easter Sunday 1873 in Louisiana. As this was an incident I’d not heard of before, this was an educational novel for me. In a contested election, with both sides claiming victory, the freed blacks decided to hold the courthouse for the government

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officials they’d voted for. Members of the White League (precursor to the KKK) joined forces with the democrats to try to force the blacks and their republican officials out of the courthouse. Neither side backed down. The democrats had much superior firepower, and showed no mercy when the skirmish was over, resulting in the deaths of 100 to 150 freed blacks, with little loss of life for the whites involved. It was a horrendous story. While I am grateful to the author for telling it, I didn’t find the story particularly well told. It seemed twice as long as it needed to be, and lagged too often in the narrative. However, the characters (including, apparently, some of the author’s forbears) and the setting of the village of Colfax and surrounding lands were very believably rendered.

Overall a good read.

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I couldn't finish this one. Very few books do I give up on. This was one.

I listened to the audio version of this read by Bahni Turpin; this is definitely worth listening to. This is a sad, yet uplifting novel.

Tademy has done some amazing genealogical research and traced her family back to the Colfax Massacre. She successfully combines her research with fiction to create

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an engrossing story.

POSSIBLE SPOILER: I really like how Tademy ended this novel. You'll find that her parents are Nathan Green (Ted) Tademy Jr. and Willie Dee Billes; she really ties it up nicely with this one.

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Once again Lalita Tademy does a wonderful job bringing her family history vividly to life.

This book is a beautiful read very sad at times but makes you realise how people will not be knocked down no matter what life throws at them

“Red River” is an amazing fictionalized account of an African-American family from the tumultuous time of Reconstruction into the late 1930s. Tademy does an incredible job of portraying the raw emotions and experiences that encompass this tragic period of American history. A follow up to

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previous novel, ”Cane River”, she guides through her family’s generations with their accomplishments, tragedies, struggles and successes. Her use of regional language and descriptions take you back in time. With scattered pictures and copies of documents you come to realize that though this is a novel it is based on fact. It will horrify you, make you cry, make you cheer them on, give you hope and strength and you will admire the fortitude of the people who were able to change society.

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n 1873 in the small southern town of Colfax, Louisiana, history tells us there was a riot. The Tademy family knows different. "1873. Wasn't no riot like they say. It was a massacre..." The blacks are newly free, just beginning life under Reconstruction, with all its promises of equity, the right to

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vote, to own property and, most importantly, to decide their own future as individuals. Federal Government troops are supposed to arrive to protect the rights of the colored people--but they are not yet on the scene.
Amazon summary: In one wretched day, white supremacists destroy all the optimism and bright promise by taking Colfax back in an ugly and violent manner. The tragedy begins with the two sides: the white Democrats of Montgomery and the colored and white Republicans of Colfax in the courthouse, finally meeting face to face to discuss their differences. Then, a group of white thugs kills a colored man who was not involved in the courthouse struggle. He was home minding his business and the ugliness came and found him.

The confrontation that follows results in the death of more than 100 black men, killed by white supremacists bent on denying them their voting rights and keeping in office those who uphold the status quo prior to the Civil War. The massacre is only the beginning of Tademy's story. Using reliable sources wherever they may be found, she tells the hard and proud story of Sam Tademy, Israel Smith and their families as they fight their way back from the massacre. They get a foothold in Colfax, finally starting a school, owning land and businesses and becoming full-fledged citizens, as they were meant to be.

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