Sarah Williams, author of Backside of the Country.

Staff Reports

During the turbulent years of 1930-1965, events disrupted the lives of many African Americans. The Kane family, a family of sharecroppers, was no exception. Stanley Kane, a widower and father of seven, was the family’s anchor.

Annie Jo Kane, the second-oldest child, is the main character in this story. She and her six brothers and sisters are sometimes traumatized and sometimes elated by events that unfold. This story takes place in Mississippi and North Carolina, and contains a plot that touches on many historic civil rights occurrences.

Backside of the Country is a story of fiction based on stories the author heard during her younger years. The characters are a creation of her imagination but could refer to any African American who lived in the south during those years and even sometimes today. People of any age who have the ability to understand remotely what racism can do to a country’s people will appreciate the characters and stories contained in this book. Jim Crow is dead, but prejudice and racism are still very much alive.

For Sarah Williams, writing Backside of the Country was a labor of love. Her mother suggested that she write this book in her own style. The South, during the years that she wrote about, was not an easy place for any African American to live. Hate, one man for another, was the order of the day, and most people who lived there were subjected to it.

Williams, was born into a family of seven in Asheville, North Carolina. She was educated at Winston-Salem State University and at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Growing up during the civil rights era taught her that she had to persevere if she ever hoped to escape many of the stereotypical labels assigned to African Americans.