Sacred Ground
by
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They will not view this community as being sacred because they will never understand how one spring day my brother wanted to show me how skillful he was in mastering a sling shot. I followed him into the woods next to the cemetery. He ordered me to remain silent as he released his ammunition barely missing a bird. What happened that day has remained with us until this day. A Shepherd suddenly appeared! And who could ever forget the ghoul dressed in an over-sized coat and a top hat that paced back and forth in our backyard late one winter night. This ghoul would not be intimidated regardless the number of times my father fired in the air with his shotgun. He simply danced back and forth from side to side until he vanished into the cemetery.
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About the Book
Sacred Ground is a true story about the lives of African-American families living in a small rural community during the early thirties through the twenty-first century. This book describes the resilience these families were in spite of the tragedies they experienced. Cemeteries surround this small community; so many, that if the cemeteries were an ocean, the community could be considered a peninsula.These families were subjected to the racial fury of the Deep South in the 1950s. Yet, they survived because they were on sacred ground.
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About the Author
Joyce Whitlock is a registered nurse and native to this breath-taking community she so eloquently describes. Though she married in the late seventies and relocated to the west coast, she later returned to the small community she loves so dearly.
She realized early on developers would eventually redevelop this sacred place. To preserve the legacy, she petitioned the county to rename two streets to pay homage to two former citizens. May the spirit of these individuals who once lived in this community be cherished perpetually by this amazing story, Sacred Ground.