Madison Historical Society Zoom Lecture by Anne Dimock

Tuesday, September 19, 2023, 7pm:

"Madison's Barbershop Controversy: Local History Through the Lens of Historical Fiction and Imagination."

 

The 1960s were turbulent times in America and Madison was not spared. The Barbershop controversy of 1964 was perhaps its most well known example. Want to know more about it? Anne Dimock's latest novel, Against The Grain(Woodhall Press, November 2022) portrays those times and troubles in a fictional NJ town, based on her own life in Madison. Join her as she presents the history and her process to the Madison Historical Society. This program is free and open to the public. Contact historicalsociety@rosenet.org or www.madisonnjhistoricalsociety.org for registration. Provide your email address no later than 2pm on Tuesday, September 19 in order to receive the link to join the Zoom presentation.

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A young Black girl—teenaged Fleur Williams—gets an afterschool job that challenges the status quo. It’s 1962 and the southern United States is the epicenter of desegregation violence. But Fleur lives in a New Jersey suburb where these things don’t happen. Or do they?

 

Fleur will be “the new girl” in an upscale jewelry store. Her father tries to prepare her for the reality of her new job – “More likely you’ll be the cleaning lady. It’s foolish to trust white people,” he says. Some try to help her even as others impede her, and some end up doing both. The pastor of the Catholic parish doesn’t want the racial politics of the times to spillover into his quiet, manageable town. A local barber, whose family has strong roots and a loyal clientele, doesn’t want anyone to tell him who to serve. The wife of the president of the local liberal arts college in town takes an interest in Fleur’s future and wants to manage her opportunities. And the co-owner of the shop where Fleur works is just trying to keep her business on the road to success.

 

Against the backdrop of the early 1960s, half of these six characters want to maintain their own vision of a Jamestown idyll--a city on a hill, a pious flock, a wholesome family town. The others want change. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Newark riots, everyone must navigate the tremors rippling through Jamestown as they defend or re-imagine their quiet, sleepy suburb.