Anne Aletha: The Story of a Suffragist s Fight Against Racism and the Klan During Wwi (Ardent Writer Press)

In 1918, against the backdrop of WWI, a re-emerging Ku Klux Klan, and the Spanish Influenza, Anne Aletha, a young unconventional schoolteacher, inherits her uncle's cash-strapped farm in the small South Georgia town of Ray's Mill. Anne Aletha is thrilled with her newfound independence but must secure the town's teaching position in order to support herself. With her progressive views on women's suffrage, her strong convictions against racial injustice, and her bookish nature, she struggles for acceptance without compromising her ideals. When a nearby white farmer is murdered and three innocent black farmhands are lynched, including a woman, Anne Aletha takes a stand against the atrocities and plunges herself and those she loves into the violence of the Ku Klux Klan.

The horrific lynchings that take place in the story are based on true events, including the brutal lynching of Mary Turner, whose only crime was speaking out against the murder of her husband. She is memorialized in the Legacy Museum for Peace and Justice (aka the Lynching Museum) in Montgomery, Alabama. Anne Aletha is a historical novel that explores themes still relevant today and invites the reader to reflect on the legacy of civil rights and women's suffrage and the road that remains to be traveled.