THE WEIGHT OF JUSTICE

A group of African Americans unites for self-defense in the Jim Crow South in this debut historical novel.

World War II is the recent past in 1950s North Carolina. But for the black former Marines who settled in the town of Centerville after leaving the military, they are under siege there as much as they were on the battlefield. A corrupt white sheriff persecutes the black community, abetted and supported by many of Centerville’s whites. After the local bank rejects his loan application, Micah Boida, “a professor at the Negro college and the owner of the only decent restaurant and lounge for coloreds in the area,” reaches out to friends and acquaintances, urging them to organize for protection and to fight against racism and violence. Micah begins with his fellow male military veterans, but the group, named The Plow, grows to include civilians and women as well. Their first operation, the rescue of a family kidnapped in an attempt to steal its land, is a victory, not least because they are able to keep their work secret. Bruce Johnson, a sheriff's deputy and Micah’s longtime friend, is The Plow’s staunchest white ally, although his willingness to cover up the group’s crimes makes him morally questionable as well. The Plow ultimately tries to take down the biggest threat to Centerville’s African American community, seeking to bring a measure of peace to a dangerous part of the world. While the book’s principal villains border on cartoonish—though their actions are almost entirely historically plausible— Houston does an excellent job of portraying the less violent forms of racism that weigh down the black characters. (“White men have careers, boy. You have a job, and you have a damn good one,” says a water plant foreman to a black employee.) The story also deftly explores community development and personal agency, as the members of The Plow expand their skills and decide to fight on their own behalf. The prose could use polishing in some areas, but the plot is generally strong and fast-paced, making for a highly readable novel that brings the touch of a thriller to its historical elements.

An engrossing segregation tale that offers a new look at racist violence.