Bontemps,
Arna, Chariot in the Sky, The John C. Winston Company, Philadelphia, 1951.
Available in various hardcover and paperback editions.
Recommended by Dorinda Kauzlarich-Rupe
Chariot in
the Sky is a special book to me. 1) This book was the first gift given to me by
Dad—one year exactly before he and Mother married. It was great to re-read it! 2)
It is a genre that I really like to read—stories about those who are “the least
of these”—those who are either overlooked or treated horribly by society.
The story
is about a slave boy, Caleb Willows, and his dream of and journey to freedom,
and finally, his efforts to make something of himself and to help others to do
the same once they were actually freedmen. Whether slave or free, Caleb was
always a youngster/man of great integrity, always a hard worker and wanting to
help others. Like all former slaves he had a lot of mishaps along the way, but
always maintained his integrity.
It is also
the story of Fisk University founded in Nashville, Tennessee, just 6 months
after the end of the Civil War and incorporated in 1866. It still exists today.
Caleb attended during the terrible financial difficulties of the school and had
a beautiful bass voice. He sang with the Fisk Jubilee singers as they tried to
raise money going on concert tours in the US and Europe.
Arna
Bontemps was librarian at Fisk in later years and therefore had access to
historical records. He was one of several Fisk faculty members who became major figures in
American literature. The sketches in the book are by Cyrus Leroy
Baldridge, a well-known black writer and painter.
