A Stronger Kinship: One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith | 
| Author: Anna-lisa Cox
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $2.64
You Save: $22.31 (89%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 662899
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0316110183
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.896073077413
EAN: 9780316110181
ASIN: 0316110183
Publication Date: February 6, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In the heartland of 19th-century America, amid a roaring sea of racism and hatred, a mixed-race community existed where blacks lived as equal citizens. Schools and churches were completely integrated, blacks and whites married, and power and wealth were shared between the races. Starting in the 1860s, the people of Covert, Michigan, broke laws and barriers to attempt what then seemed impossible: to love ones neighbor as oneself. Far from serving as a beacon, amidst Americas turmoil the story of Covert was forgotten, swept aside by those who found its presence threatening, wiped away by the passage of time. Now, in A STRONGER KINSHIP, Anna-Lisa Cox gives us an astonishing account of the residents of Covert, told through six leading families who lived out this grand experiment in peaceable justice. It presents an America that miraculously once was, and a vision of what our nation might be. Anna-Lisa Coxs amazing history of Covert is a revelation.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Southwest Michigan has even more similar history December 26, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I want to thank Anna-Lisa for her efforts in researching and writing this book. It brings to light an area of the country that is probably like none other in America's history. I am a product of those people as well, being that my mother is a Pompey and a descendent of those free African Americans who came to Southwest Michigan from North Carolina and Virginia.
I too have been working on a book for many years and hope to have it published one day. It is about Cassopolis, Michigan, only 40 miles from Covert. It was probably even a greater example of a free African American utopia in the 1800's. There were black county commissioners, teachers, wealthy farmers (my great, great, great, great grandfather in 1902 was the largest taxpayer in Calvin Township in Cassopolis, having a net worth of over $50,000 and owning 500 acres... he was a former slave from Nottoway, VA) and business owners.
If anyone is interested in learning more about this area of the country where I was born and raised, I would suggest actually visiting Covert and the Cassopolis area. Covert has an awesome historical museum (albeit small) with great period photos and information.
[...]
Thanks again, Anna-Lisa.
A Stronger Kinship review November 4, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book is well researched and well written. I live in Covert (the town depicted in the book) and my husband was raised there. I am involved in the community and have spoken to several of the residents interviewed for the book. They felt it was an accurate depiction of life in
Covert, and my husband's recollections of the stories told to him as a child cofirm this. I met Ms. Anna-Lisa Cox this summer and was impressed with her dedication to telling Covert's story accurately and her continueing interest in the community. I was personally interested to read about an otherwise obscure village that was a beacon of hope to African -Americans looking for a place to be treated with dignity and respect in the 1800 and early 1900s.
 An excellent Story November 3, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ms. Cox has provided a window though which all of us can view the promise of America and what could have been. It is my hope that this well written and solidly researched "little" book can be widely distributed and read. I would recommend that it be sent to Oprah. Her book club would really have something to talk about.
Dr. James O. Jackson, Principal Emeritus
A Stronger Kinship August 23, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was drawn to this book because I was born and raised in the Toledo Ohio area...I was amazed at the history and facts as they were presented by Ms Cox..I had seen her interview on C-Span. I enjoyed the way she tired together the families and the communtiy. She also brought alive the struggles of the era. Like walking form North Carolina to Michigan!! The strength and fortitude of these people; the losses and the rewards for risk...I thought it was an amazing book and a very insightful look at the times
A wonderful book! February 25, 2006
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Defined as "concealment and shelter," Covert, Michigan is an aptly named place. American history lessons taught in the 1960s never mentioned the fact that this town existed as a fully integrated community in the 1860s. Now nearly 150 years later, as we strive for racial equality, it is enlightening to know that it is part of our American heritage.
Anna-Lisa Cox has completed exhaustive research of the people and events that converged in a time that racism was so prevalent, three million Americans went to war to defend their beliefs.
A Stronger Kinship is filled with the names and histories of the people who created this concealed community founded on acceptance. In a time when education was not readily available to many whites in the unsettled frontiers of the Midwest, black and white children learned side-by-side in Covert. Interracial marriages and an equal distribution of wealth and property were normal.
At times it is a struggle to keep track of the names and dates, particularly when more than one person has the same name. Ample footnotes help guide the reader. More than a novel, this book is a historical depiction of important and relevant events.
Armchair Interviews says: Seeming too good to be true, it's hard to believe that such a wonderful legacy has not been widely honored and celebrated by history and all Americans.
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