The word also sets the tone of the town's postwar racial references and bigotry. The author's use of the word 'colored' isn't gratuitous-the book's setting is Birdsong, South Carolina, in 1946. * "If Opie Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show wrote a book about Mayberry's racism, the voice would be that of Gabriel Haberlin, the 12-year-old white boy who is saved from near tragedy by Meriwether Hunter, a 'colored' man. The South being the way it is, there's no guarantee that the police will help-and Gabriel doesn't know what will happen if Meriwether feels forced to take the law into his own hands.
Sadly, danger finds Meriwether, anyway, when his family receives a frightening threat. Meriwether is proud of his service, but has to keep it a secret because talking about it could be dangerous. Gabriel and Meriwether become friends, and Gabriel learns that Meriwether drove a tank in the Army's all-Black 761st Tank Battalion in WWII. Gabriel's dad hires him with some hesitation, however, anticipating trouble with the other mechanic, who makes no secret of his racist opinions.
As a thank you, Gabriel gets him a job at his dad's auto shop. Fortunately, a Black man named Meriwether pushes him out of the way just in time, and fixes his damaged bike. On Gabriel's twelfth birthday, he gets a new bike-and is so excited that he accidentally rides it right into the path of a car. The Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author tells the moving story of the friendship between a young white boy and a Black WWII veteran who has recently returned to the unwelcoming Jim Crow South.
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