There are a number of back roads- many still dirt, easily accessible from Florida's highways that lead to tight-knit, history-rich African-American settlements. Communities where African Americans families, spanning generations, have lived for hundreds of years, farming, raising families, building schools, forming churches and most of all thriving in spite of the burden of the South's institutional racism. Midway is one such community. Voices of Midway provides the reader with a historical recollection of the Midway community, cloaked in the midst of Florida's tropical climate nestled in the bosom of a small settlement where rich, fertile soil gave life to a vibrant agricultural economy. Dr. Cook conducted first-hand interviews with women and men whose mothers and fathers were the town's original settlers', lives spanning decades of oppression, rapid social acceleration, and change.
The voices in this book are multifold. Voices that recall the fight for equality - in the classroom, in the community and beyond. Voices responsible for the institution of pride and indomitable will oft-found within the African American community, that bucked the psychological purpose of Jim Crow - to instill the feeling of less than. Voices that made sure that upcoming generations in their care believed they were more than. These are the stories representing the core of the Midway community's strength, and relate the historical wealth in all historically black communities as well as the interrelation between education, spirituality, ownership, and family.
