The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
One can hardly help commiserating with Elwood Curtis. Curtis was very naïve, raised and sheltered by his grandmother after being abandoned by his parents, in a black enclave of Tallahassee, Florida during the Jim Crow era. He was a quiet and studious young man, very much influenced by the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. which he listened to on his Victrola until he had the words memorized.
Just as Elwood was about to begin classes at a local college, an innocent mistake landed him in a juvenile reform school called the Nickel Academy. The so-called academy was really a chamber of horrors, where students were beaten and sexually abused by the staff, while corrupt local officials routinely stole food and supplies from the school. Many of the boys who did not cooperate routinely disappeared. Through it all, Elwood tried to cling to the teachings of MLK.
The book, though fiction, was based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years, badly affecting the lives of thousands of children. I did shed a few tears reading it, but the character of Elwood had its human quirks and even some humor. I heartily recommend this book to readers who like real human stories.
Susan B.