Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name - One White, One Black

I had a profound emotional reaction to this book. Now I finally understand my mother and grandmother. My grandmother was a direct descendant of a Texas Confederate soldier who died of his wounds several years after the Civil War. That part of our family were American immigrants invited into Mexico to settle along the Brazos River in the 1830 s. As we all know, the offer backfired and didn’t turn out so well for the Mexican government when Texas seceded and later joined the United States. My mother’s education in the Texas school system in El Paso 100 years later during the 1930s must have followed many of the patterns I learned about in this book. Grandmother’s racism was never subtle. She was openly terrified of black people of all ages and genders. My mother adopted the cold and polite variety of 20th century anti-Black discrimination found in New England where she settled in 1947. One of the finest qualities of Tomlinson’s book is how he takes notice of incremental progress away from bigotry. My mother was slightly better than her mother. I have tried to do better than my mother. What a long and steep hill still rises in front of me. I never knew how deep a chasm I was living in.

Chris Tomlinson covers almost two centuries of Texas and human history in "The Remarkable Story of Two Families who Share the Tomlinson Name - One White, One Black." He mines an immense variety of documents to provide objective history. He also mines his own subjective life story and the stories of the slave-descended family that also has had the Tomlinson name. From his experiences as a reporter in Africa and the Middle East, he develops a theory of the connections between power and bigotry and on the need for truth as a basis for any reconciliation. This is needed to end the mythology that the powerful use to justify or ignore exploitation of others.The writing ranges from precise presentation of history to narratives of the lives of white and black Tomlinsons. It interweaves among historical chapters and narrative chapters from several perspectives. Tomlinson's writing is consistently compelling.I personally relate to his epilogue in which he faces honestly white privilege, something that people claiming that "we are now post-racial" deny. As a fit, clean-cut, old white man, I can pretty much go anywhere and not be questioned. During a morning run in Waikiki, if I need to use a bathroom, I can go into any hotel lobby and find the men's room and no one questions me. On the rare instances that I have been stopped (and with reason) for sliding through a stop sign or driving over the speed limit, the officer always has treated me with dignity and often let me by with a courtesy citation. Tomlinson convincingly shares that the privilege that he and I take for granted is not a shared experience for most people of color.Finally, I do not usually take the time to review books that I read. However, "The Remarkable Story of Two Families who Share the Tomlinson Name - One White, One Black" so moved me that I want to share my own perspective of this outstanding book.

Chris Tomlinson's undertaking to uncover his family's history of owning slaves is highly commendable. From the arrival of the first Tomlinson in Falls County, Texas and purchasing the land that would become Tomlinson Hill to the last African-American with the Tomlinson name to reside there, the author chronicles his ancestry through some of black history's major epochs: slavery, Civil War, emancipation, reconstruction, segregation, desegregation.Chris Tomlinson's experience as an AP journalist covering international affairs provides for unfiltered writing when it comes to race relations. He writes fluidly and openly about his family's racist past and his own encounters when dealing with race. In tracing the roots of the white Tomlinson family and the slaves they owned with the same namesake, the author was finally able to prove something that he always heard but was never really explained to him. His research revealed how his white ancestors were the slaveowners of the ancestors of famous now-retired NFL running back LaDanian Tomlinson.

This really is a remarkable story. It was more than I had hoped for, in fact. I expected that it would be a chronicle of the slave holders and the slaves, and of their coming together under more favorable terms generations later, and it was that. But it was much more as well. What I did not expect was Chris Tomlinson's ability to put these two family traditions into a broader historical and cultural context, not only during the days of King Cotton, but up to the present day. In reading his book, I found I gained insight not only into these particular lives, and into slavery and its legacy in general, but also into the dynamics of collective consciousness that have given rise to the divisive politics that may be found in Texan public life—and indeed throughout the country—even today. I am reminded again just how much that "peculiar institution" of slavery has colored every aspect of American life. A great read. I will recommend it.

Overall, this was an informative book with a lot of detail about the development of Texas, just prior to the beginning of the Civil War to the present. The early thrust involved much information on slavery, its brutality and the coming of the KKK. The chapter on the KKK was so disheartening, I actually forwarded through it because of the violent beliefs. As the timeline progressed, it became more interesting and I would say that the last section which focused on the current Tomlinsons - both black and white was very interesting.

just received my item.will respond to a review when I have read this remarkable story.