In Their Own Words

Three sisters, Lucinda, Vennie Lou, and Carrie, migrated from Troy, Alabama to Argo, Illinois in the1920s. They started a new clan in the small industrial town, best known for the huge corn factory. Life in the 1950s was hard in the segregated North, requiring different life-coping skills especially for Negro families. The sisters were survivors, and men like Rooster, Oliver, Captain, and Wallace were also survivors, but in different ways. Lil Man, an 8-year-old member of the family, was bathed in the excitement of his family and the notorious life style that centered in the Negro section of Argo, called the Horseshoe Bend, where bars, taverns, and gambling attracted Negroes from surrounding communities and big city Chicago. The decadence of the town was balanced by the strong family bonds that predominated Argo's Negro community. Secrets shared only by the three sisters insured the family bond would hold.