White Lilacs

Back then--and this was in 1921--Freedom, as we called it, was our part of Dillon. There was everything you could want in a town -- our colored school and two churches and a grocery store and cafe... It just happened that Freedom was right in the middle of Dillon, white people on every side of us.

When Dillon's white residents announce plans to raze Freedomtown, relocate its residents, and build in its place a park, things change. Young Rose Lee Jefferson finds herself at the heart of the debate about how to respond. Can the families of Freedomtown fight the city's plans? Must they leave their homes and neighbors?