“Take my hand when you are worried/Take my hand when you're alone/
Take my hand and let me guide you/Take my hand to lead you home.” — Ben Harper
Clearly, I’m outta steam. Or is it gas? Whichever phase is closer to exhaustion, that’s the one that’s got me. I had big plans for a fitting Juneteenth post about Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s latest novel, Take My Hand. Her “jewel of a book” revolves around a horrific true story that took place in post-segregation Alabama nearly 50 years ago. Perkins-Valdez shines a light on the likes of brave Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf. I was previously unaware of the two African American sisters who were involuntarily sterilized by tubal ligation, at a federally funded family planning clinic no less. The fact that they were ages 12 and 14 sent me flying.
Perkins-Valdez knocked me for six with the timing of her book release. Her main character, Civil Townsend, is a strong, assertive, principled woman who maintains female bodies “belong to us…poor, disabled, it [doesn’t] matter.” Civil takes seriously Martin Luther King Jr’s reported last words (that inspired the novel’s title)—“Ben, make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord” in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty”—in fact, she embodies them. Civil joins hands with the least among us and tries, with all the energy of her deep-beating heart, to understand. And Lift.