Roses in December: Black Life in Hanover County from Civil War to Civil Rights

The inspiring chronicle of a Black community in Virginia fighting for civil rights over the course of a pivotal century

Roses in December is a story of strength, courage, and beauty found in difficult times and the most challenging of circumstances. Beginning in the era of Reconstruction and ending with desegregation, Jody Lynn Allen chronicles the lives of newly freed people and their descendants in Hanover County, Virginia, providing an unprecedented look at rural Black Virginians’ resilience after disfranchisement. In the century between 1865 and 1965, Black residents of Hanover County embraced liberty as they organized for education, employment, and religious freedom, and built a community that flourished in the face of white retrenchment and day-to-day oppression. In this at times poignant, at times funny, and always powerful book, Allen’s attention to local, community level history offers an overlooked yet vital perspective of the civil rights movement in the rural South.

Jody Lynn Allen is Assistant Professor of History and Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation at the College of William & Mary.