MANUEL STRONG

Manuel tells the story of his working-class parents in this biographical work.

Some of the best stories of American life are not about exceptional people, but everyday folks who achieve great things. The author notes in his preface to this biography that it’s “not about the rise from slavery of one especially gifted person to greatness”; instead, it’s about “ordinary people expressing the desire and drive that God created in them.” The author’s great-grandparents on both sides were enslaved in Georgia and Kentucky, respectively, and his parents, Florine Davis and James Manuel, were both raised in modest circumstances in the segregated northern city of Springfield, Ohio. They knew each other as children but didn’t fall in love until their late teenage years. They married at 18 and went on to raise 17 children on food from the family garden and money from James’ paychecks from working at a series of disparate jobs, including as a road maintenance worker, a baseball coach, a deputy sheriff, and a pin-setter at a bowling alley. The author goes on to tell of how the couple’s love for each other, faith in God, and sense of responsibility for their children helped the family thrive, despite many hardships. Manuel’s prose is simple and workmanlike, presenting the details of his parents’ lives with the loving eye of an observant, concerned son: “Florine would prepare a batch [of sweet tea] in a pan that contained about two gallons. He could drink it all in a few days. The tea was delicious, but the large amount of sugar in it eventually took its toll on James’s health.” Manuel states that he intends his parents’ story as a representative portrait of one Black family’s success through hard work, perseverance, faith, and family, and in this, he succeeds. However, it’s not so remarkable a story that it will be of interest to many outside the family; indeed, later chapters function almost like a directory of the family’s various children and grandchildren. Even so, it’s a charming account of several American lives.

A loving, Christianity-centered tribute to the matriarch and patriarch of a large Black family.