Famous residents included entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker, boxer Joe Louis, novelist Charles Chesnutt and Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first successful open heart surgery. The famous, the infamous and obscure primarily from Detroit and Chicago frequented Idlewild. When integration and the 1964 Civil Rights Act provided Blacks with more vacation options, Idlewild and similar resorts began to decline. The Idlewild of Pearl Cleage's novel is a shell of its former self. The kids are angry.
Men are shell-shocked.
Ava Johnson grew up in Idlewild with her sister, Joyce. After ten years in Atlanta, where she ran a successful hair salon, Ava has come home to spend time with Joyce before moving on to San Francisco. Like the town, Ava is angry, shell-shocked and alone. She is also HIV-positive. She is reacquainted with a childhood family friend, Eddie Jefferson.