Dear Martin

 

by Pa Rock

Reader

The small town of Greenfield, Missouri (pop. 1,220), is located about forty miles from Springfield, the largest metropolitan area in southwest Missouri.  Greenfield is a small, primarily agrarian community that is the seat of Dade County,  Ironically, forty years or so ago Greenfield also boasted one of the most progressive rock radio stations in the area, but those days of leaning into the future now seem to be firmly framed in the little town's rearview mirror.

Early this past April, during the fifteen-day period that some Missouri educators refer to as the "turkey shoot," a period of time in which school boards can vote to not renew the contracts of non-tenured teachers, the school board at Greenfield voted to not renew the contract of a high school English teacher just as she was about to achieve tenure.  When the teacher requested a reason for her non-renewal, as was her right, the superintendent presented her with a letter stating that her contract had not been renewed because of a preparatory worksheet that she had used with her students related to a novel titled "Dear Martin."

"Dear Martin," by Atlanta-based author Nic Stone, is the story of a young black man, Justyce McAllister who has been salvaged from a life in the hood by being awarded a scholarship to a prestigious college preparatory high school - and the way his life is affected by that move into a dramatically different environment.  In the "About the Author" section of the novel, there is the following statement about the origins of Ms. Stone's focus for this novel:

"Dear Martin is her first novel and is loosely based on a series of true events involving the shooting deaths of unarmed African American teenagers.  Shaken by the various responses to these incidents - and to the pro-justice movement that sprang up as a result - Stone began the project in an attempt to examine current affairs through the lens of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s teachings."

Obviously there were some prominent people in Greenfield, Missouri, who were uncomfortable with the idea of their students being exposed to the currents that flow beneath the issues of race in America, in fact, they undoubtedly feared that it might be connected to that "Critical Race Theory" that Fox News had been warning them about.

Being an old teacher myself, one whose academic background is steeped in English and history, my response when I heard about the school board's action in Greenfield was to purchase a copy of the book so I could read it for myself and see what all of the noise was about.  I bought it, read it, and liked it - a lot.

Justyce is an exceptional teen who has received some miraculous advantages in a life that could have easily been defined by impoverished circumstances and bad choices.  But even with his advantages, real life still relentlessly pursues him through the racism of a society that has been built on stereotypes and nurtured across generations.  No matter how hard he tries, Justyce cannot seem to alter how he is perceived by the world around him.

After an incident in which he is handcuffed and wrongfully arrested by a white police officer, Justyce, who has read and studied many of the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., begins an introspective and self-healing project of journaling personal letters to Dr. King in which the youth examines his own struggles in relation to some of the trials that Dr. King endured.  He begins each of those letters with "Dear Martin."

"Dear Martin" is not a lengthy novel, and its not complicated with structural barriers like difficult vocabulary, multi-layered plots and sub-plots, or flashbacks.  It is a fairly simple story of a young man finishing high school and getting ready for college, his social interactions with varying degrees of friends, and his relationships with two very different young ladies.  Justyce interacts with racial injustice when it confronts him directly through the police and the community, or when it comes at him obliquely through his high school friends.  He even has to deal with his own mother's intense dislike of a white girl dating her son, a dislike that is based entirely on the girl's race.

But even though "Dear Martin" comes across as a fairly straight-forward read, it is anything but simple to digest.  The story of Justyce McAllister constantly confronts the reader those old prejudices and that reach back generations and have silently and insidiously become a part of who we are.  "Dear Martin," with its gut-wrenching forays into situations that have their roots in contemporary news stories, is self-revealing and, at times, an uncomfortable experience, but it is also a vehicle for change and growth.

I regret that the community of Greenfield, Missouri, saw fit to fire (okay, "not-renew") a teacher because she wanted her students to experience "Dear Martin," and I regret that the small community of Monett, Missouri,  banned the same book from its high school.   Schools should foster growth and change, and schools which try to impede growth and change are pulling civilization backward.  I feel sorry for children who are mired down in communities that fear ideas and thinking - and change.

But know this world:  there is a young man in Salem, Oregon, who will be fifteen next month, and his grandfather will be sending him a copy of "Dear Martin" as a birthday gift.

Excellent work, Ms. Stone.  I was moved and challenged by your very disturbing first novel.