Reviewed:
(This is not a review of "Laura Alban Hunt," which is not yet complete. It is a review of "Laura Alban Hunt" Chapter 31)
During the memorial services for Rosa Parks last week, where we experienced reminders about the dangers that brave Americans withstood in order to stand up to bullying governments—dangers that included beatings, torture, even death—we remembered that all Americans should be proud of the heroism of our fellow citizens and at the same time shamed by the inaction of others of us.
Chapter 31 of "Laura Alban Hunt" can stand by itself, separate from the rest of chapters. It could be its own short story. It tells the story of the freedom rides in the sixties, of specific heroes, of what they did and what happened to them. It is a moving narrative about the life of Terri Farmer, not a brash leader in the forefront of issues, but someone who could not deny her duty when called out.
Terri was always different, and her awakening lesbianism developed along with her growth in basketball skills until, by hard work, she became a good player. At college, she was confronted with evils that turned her life around. She had understood rejections and unfairness in her childhood and youth, and as she learned about segregation and other injustices done to blacks in the south, she sacrificed her own happiness for the chance to do what she thought was right.
Chapter 31 is moving; it will inspire you to noble action, to be like Terri. It will wrench your emotions, make you proud, make you ashamed.