THE FORBIDDEN MAN

by Allen ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 1961

An earnest, angry and often moving novel about integration in the Spanish-White-Negro-town in the southwest, Guadalupe. Eli Alexander is a Negro teacher, dedicated and (convincingly) an excellent teacher. When the Negro school where he has taught is integrated into the local white high school, Eli fights legally to be allowed to go on teaching there. He wins in the court; thereafter it is a personal battle, with his pupils, with himself, and with Lancy Danberry. Danberry, head of the school board, is married to a Spanish woman, but resents the mixture of blood in their children, especially in blond, beautiful, semi delinquent Juana. He organizes a mob to keep Eli from entering the school. When Eli's white friends help him break through, Lancy sees that he gets no classes. Later, he is assigned to the mixed blood, juvenile delinquents, with whom Juana (unknown to her father) has allied herself. Eli narrowly escapes a knifing by Juana's boy friend, but manages to teach her, along with the class, something of what he has to give. Danberry, however, turns other Negroes against Eli. Juana is accidentally killed. There is a touch too much melodrama and too many side plots in this story, but the author has right, knowledge and indignation on her side, and the central scenes, of a Negro teacher at bay among the disturbed from an even more disjointed background, are frequently stirring.

Pub Date: March 17, 1961

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Chilton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1961

Categories: FICTION