Forty Acres

No one gave the Washington family forty acres or a mule. C.W. Washington has risen from a sharecropper's son to the largest Black landowner in Dwight County, Arkansas. But a stroke has forced him to retire from farming. Now he must decide what happens to his beloved land. Each of his children has a suggestion. Unfortunately, none of them agree. C.W. is looking to his daughter, Carolyn, a high-level government attorney, to help him get his affairs in order during their annual family reunion. She agrees, even though she had planned to stay in Chicago with her off-again on-again boyfriend and maybe -- future husband. Should Carolyn advise C.W. to give the land to the son who stayed home and farmed alongside him for years? Or should he sell the land and divide the money equally among his seven children? Should he consider that one of them doesn't need money, or that one is almost bankrupt? What about his son in prison? And what about the surprising revelation that one of her siblings is not C.W.'s biological child? The reunion should be a time of fellowship and fun. But this year, along with barbeque, fried catfish and hand-cranked ice cream, there'll be servings of suspicion, secrecy and greed. And when 'Lil' Bucky' shows up-all grown up and looking good-Carolyn finds she has a secret of her own, and a decision to make. The Washingtons have overcome drought, poverty and Jim Crow. Now comes the hard part... Book jacket.Dixon, Phyllis R. is the author of 'Forty Acres', published 2004 under ISBN 9780974954059 and ISBN 0974954055.