Sexton studied creative writing at Dartmouth and law at UC Berkeley. Publisher’s Weekly gave “A Kind of Freedom” a starred review, writing, “In this fine debut, each generation comes with new possibilities and deferred dreams blossoming with the hope that this time, finally, those dreams may come to fruition.” “Maybe he would see him as just a good man, and, yeah, he’d made some mistakes, but he loved his family, he was there for his son.” “Maybe Malik would know him to be a warrior, someone who turned the odds on their head,” T.C. Sexton, who grew up in New Orleans but now lives in the Bay Area of California, tears at your heart with this multi-generational tale in which readers hope for the best for this family but know society’s limitations and empty promises will drag them down.Īnd yet, hope remains. When his girlfriend gives birth to a son, he feels the pull of being someone his son will admire, despite the hand being dealt him as a man of color. Jackie’s son, T.C., grows up lured with the easy money of providing drugs to the community, and he enjoys growing his own special blend of pot. Evelyn must choose between her privileged upbringing and the man she loves, a man struggling to achieve success among gross discrimination in both the military and the city of his youth.Įvelyn and Renard give birth to two daughters, one who becomes a successful lawyer and Jackie, who marries a man destined to fall victim to drugs. She falls for Renard, a man of lesser upbringing but one who also desires to become a doctor. Three New Orleans generations make up Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s heart-wrenching novel, “A Kind of Freedom,” each suffering through desires, ambitions and brutal limitations.Įvelyn grows up in a middle-class Creole family during World War II, her father a doctor and a pillar among the African-American community.

Watch Video: Download the Go Lafayette app today!

Pure Justice by Liah Penn