'Kin' and 'When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky' fictionalize the Jim Crow South

Tayari Jones's Novel Kin Examines Segregation's Impact on Black Women In the Jim Crow South Through two Girls' Intertwined Stories

Jones’s novel "Kin" explores how segregation in the Jim Crow South deeply affected the lives of Black women, focusing on the intertwined stories of two girls. Segregation policies barred Black residents from receiving mail at home, forcing them to take long walks to collect their letters at the post office, highlighting a daily, structural injustice. Black women faced compounded vulnerability—beyond the laws and customs of segregation, they were often targets of violence and male-perpetrated harm, leaving them exposed to risks with little protection or recourse. The novel’s narrative reveals how structural racism and limited opportunities not only restricted the life paths available to Black women, but also shaped their daily experiences, exposing how intertwined personal histories are with larger systems of oppression.

Margaret Verble's Novel Centers Marginalized Native American Character, Corrects Misrepresentations of Cherokee History

Margaret Verble’s novel, "When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky," is rooted in her effort to correct racist narratives about Native American history. Verble, drawing on her Cherokee heritage, recounts how her mother—a fourth-grade teacher with family still in Oklahoma—was required by law to teach a sanitized, racist account of history: that settlers "proclaimed this land theirs for the taking" and that "the taking entailed killing a lot of Indians." This compelled her mother, year after year, to perpetuate a faux history that erased and distorted the Cherokee experience.

In the novel, Verble centers the story on Two Feathers, a Cherokee woman working as a horse diver at Glendale Park Zoo in the 1920s, on loan from the Miller Brothers Wild West Show. The character is based on actual performers whose daring acts were advertised for their bravery, yet wh ...

The Glendale Zoo in 1926 Encapsulates the Clash Between Tradition and Modernity During the Jazz Age, Reflecting American Society's Pivotal Changes

The Glendale Zoo of 1926 stands as a microcosm of broader national transformations. Margaret Verble and Ari Shapiro highlight how the 1920s mirror contemporary times due to significant division and social upheaval. Electricity and automobiles begin to reshape daily American life, while the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee exposes deep fissures in society over issues like evolution. This trial didn’t just divide opinions but fractured friendships and marriages, reflecting the decade’s pervasive, contentious atmosphere.

Glendale Zoo Remnants Connect To Past In Suburb

Verble’s memories bring the Glendale Zoo’s magic to the present. The zoo becomes a bridge to the community’s suburban past, with its remnants evoking a sense of wonder within an imperfect world. As a child, Verble found large animal bones—believed to belong to a hippopotamus or rhinoceros—sparking her fascination with that historical moment.

Research Confirms Hippo At Glendale Zoo In 1926, Validating Verble's Memories For Storytelling

To confirm her memories, Verble searched the archives of the Nashville Tennessean and found news items from 1926, including evidence that a hippopotamus had lived at the zoo that year. This discovery validated her childhood recollections and cemented 1926 as the era for her narrative, enhancing the interplay of nostalgia, research, and historical veracity.

Honeysuckle, Louisiana, Modeled On Tayari Jones's Grandmother's Real Community, Grounds the Narrative in Jim Crow Segregation's Function in Small Southern Towns

Honeysuckle, Louisiana, is deeply tied to Tayari Jones’s personal history. She models the fictional town on Oakdale, Louisiana, where her grandmother lived, reflecting the realities of Jim Crow segregation in small southern communities.

Honeysuckle Symbolizes Jones's Family's Life in Segregated Louisiana, Where Mail Delivery Prohibitions Affected Black Residents' Routines

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Annie and Vernice, the young protagonists in Kin, both experience profound maternal loss, but their responses diverge. Vernice's journey begins after her mother is killed by her father in an act of domestic violence. With the certainty that her mother is gone forever, Vernice is able to seek out a replacement maternal figure, to fill the emotional void left in her life. In contrast, Annie is left with uncertainty—her mother abandoned the family, vanishing without explanation and leaving Annie haunted by her mother's absence. This ambiguity creates a psychological wound for Annie; as Tayari Jones describes, she metaphorically reserves a place for her mother at the dinner table, unable to allow anyone else to occupy that space, fearing it would be a betr ...

Both girls are raised by maternal figures who struggle with the role thrust upon them. Vernice’s Aunt Irene, living a child-free life in Dayton, Ohio, is compelled to change her lifestyle after her mother's funeral to raise Vernice. Annie, meanwhile, is raised by her grandmother. Neither woman was prepared nor eager to provide the kind of emotional mothering the girls need. Tayari Jones points out that often Black women are portrayed in extremes—as either terrible mothers or endlessly nurturing ones—and the novel interrogates the reality and complexity of chosen versus obligatory motherhood.

Both Aunt Irene and Annie's grandmother exhibit emotional distance, unable or ...

One of the stark realities conveyed in Kin is the shadow that violence from men casts over women's lives. Aunt Irene explicitly warns Vernice, "Don't ever let no man kill you," a statement deeply rooted in her own family's trauma. This warning later resonates powerfully in Vernice’s journey, especially when her future mother-in-law reassures her that her son will not harm her. The relief Vernice feels underlines the ever-present anxiety women navigate regarding safety and male violence.

Tayari Jones expands the implication of this shadow, reflecting that womanhood is shaped by constant calculations of saf ...

Spelman College: A Catalyst for Black Middle-Class Opportunity and Social Mobility

Tayari Jones emphasizes that Spelman College’s role in Black social mobility is often misunderstood. She points out that observers frequently focus on the graduates as professionals and leaders, ignoring the reality that many Spelman students came from modest means. During the 1940s and 1950s, young women attending Spelman often worked as maids in white women's kitchens in order to earn the money to pay their tuition. Jones laments that this part of Spelman's and HBCU history has been lost to time, overshadowed by the success of alumni.

She shares a personal account: when she herself came to Spelman, all the money her family had pooled together was kept in a stocking, echoing the “savings in stockings” tradition recounted by older alumnae. This symbolized the sacrifices and resourcefulness required of Black families to secure educational opportunity for their daughters.

Jones notes that Atlanta is frequently called the "Black Mecca" due to its prominent Black middle class. However, she argues that the city’s six historically Black colleges and universities—including Spelman—did not simply serve an existing Black middle class, but were instrumental in creating it. These institutions fostered leadership, professional advancement, and social mobility, offering pathways for those who did not possess pre-existing wealth.

Spelman College Traditions: White Attire and Chapel Services Transform Students

For her historical novel, Jones conducted extensive research, including interviews with her nearly 100-year-old former college advisor, a Spelman graduate from the early 1950s. Through thei ...

Writers Tayari Jones and Margaret Verble draw from their own backgrounds and family histories to create authentic and resonant fiction. They emphasize the importance of embracing lived experience and personal connections to craft narratives that speak to their communities and correct historical misrepresentations.

Tayari Jones Shifted Focus From a Gentrification Project To a 1950s Narrative, Realizing the Backstory Was the Main Plot

Tayari Jones began her novel with the intention of writing about gentrification but experienced a creative shift. She started writing freely, using only pencil and paper without a predetermined plan until she organically “met” her characters Annie and Nisi. Jones realized these characters seemed to be alive in the 1950s and concluded, "certainly they must be the parents of my real characters." After writing over a hundred pages, she recognized that what she initially thought was mere backstory was actually her real plot. Though she doubted her capability in the historical fiction genre, she accepted this new direction. Jones describes her breakthrough as feeling "blessed," believing she was "being communicated with by something, someone unseen." She chose to trust this process, embracing the historical context as central to her story and moving forward with faith in her instincts.

Margaret Verble's Upbringing on Glendale Zoo's Ruins and Cherokee Heritage Inspired When two Feathers Fell From the Sky

Margaret Verble’s upbringing played a central role in the inspiration for her novel When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky. She was raised in a neighborhood built on the ruins of the old Glendale park zoo. On her daily walk to Glendale Elementary School, Verble passed remnants of the p ...