St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1952-08-22
ABOUT BOOKS
ROCK BOTTOM
BY Earl Conrad

Doubleday & Co., $50 PIP, 1913
The tragic biography Of a Negro
WOman's Fight 20 Survive
Here is the tragic story Of Miss
Leeha Whitfield, whose earliest
recollection of childhood was the
lynching Of her father on a plan
tation in Mississippi on a trump
ed-up charge which later was
proven false.
Rock Bottom is the true story,
unfortunately of Miss Whitfield
from her childhood in Mississippi
until her present attempts to exc
out an existence in Harlem. say
unfortunate because it records
the life Of Negroes who are forced
to live as a little more than ami
mails in this goth century.
Miss Whitfield's autobiography
is divided into four parasitic
plantation period, 1915-1927; the
wandertime, 1927-193S; the muck,
193S-1939, and the big muck,
1889 to mid-century.
The story is shocking and de-
pressive, and many will doubt its
authenticity. They will say things
like this do not happen today,
even in the deep south. One of the
great values of this book is that
it poignantly reminds this type
of person, who perhaps is secure
In his northern home and has been
eating too high on the hog" that
there is still much TO be done in
the way OF race relations in both
the North and the South.
The plantation period concerns
the life Of Miss Whitfield from
the time Of her birth until she
was IL years old. and forced to
flee from her squalid home on a
Mississippi plantation in the face
of unwelcome attentions of a son
of the plantation owner. At this
time she could neither read nor
write.
She leaves, not knowing where
she is going, but determined to
head North, a place her father
used TO refer to as silver If not
gold" During this wander time
she acquires the rudiments of an
education. gets married, and has
a child. This occurs In Virginia
At this point the readers heart
will pour out to Miss Whitfield
who only adds more trouble to
her already heavily burdened
shoulders when her husband turns
out TO be a useless scoundrel.
When things become too hard
to bear, she packs up and leaves.
At this point, II is difficult to
understand why she doesn't head
north since she now can read and
write. Instead she heads south and
ends up in Florida in the Muck"
where life for Negroes is at its
worst.
Here colored people live as in
slavery days. In reading this part
OF the novel, one gets the impress
sion that once you enter the
Muck" Is is impossible to leave.
This Is substantiated when several
Negroes attempt to purchase tic
kets away only to have the ticket
agent call their boss who then
has them sent back to him. How
ever, when Miss Whitfield de-
cides to leave, she simply bitches
rides In a series of trucks until
she reaches the North.
When she arrives in Harlem,
the big Muck, she finds that
life here is truly not gold, but 1t
is silver compared to the south.
The story is good and worth
reading, even though Oppressive.
Many sensitive persons might
find it a bit raw, but they will
want to read II. II covers about
all the areas of Negro-white re-
lations In the south.
Earl Conrad. the author is a
longtime crusader against racial
prejudice. He has written many
novels concerning the Negro. One
Of his latest is Scottsboro Boy,
written with Haywood Patterson,
one of the Scottsboro Boys.
He has served on the staff Of
the New York Journal-American.
worked as a feature writer on
Negro questions for PM. For
three years he managed the New
York bureau of the Chicago De-
fender.-James J. Force.