Motherless Child

Billy Raymond, a black chile with a mix of Native American blood, grows up straddling the two distinctly different worlds of North and South in the late 1930s.

In New York City, young Billy learns that life is much different than in the segregated South he knew as home. The pace is faster, the people are more colorful, and he can sit anywhere he wants on the train. People aren't as hurtful or disrespectful, either.

Billy enjoys a series of adventures: visiting Coney Island with all of its rides and enchantment, enjoying the World's Fair of 1939, and looking on in wonder at the domed capital building.

But as he gets older, it becomes clear that Billy is different. He has a way with animals and has other special abilities. His relatives believe he inherited his gifts as a child sitting on the lap of a family member, a woman named Bom. They believe he possesses some sort of magic. They may just be right.

However, the world still has its color lines, and no amount of magic seems to change that fact. Join Billy as he comes of age and confronts racial realities in Motherless Child.