Showing results by author "Alice Duncan" in All Categories

Black hands in Fayette County, Tennessee, were free to pick cotton and corn but were barred from casting ballots. A whirlwind of change blew through the county when Black landowners like John McFerren and Harpman Jameson organized registration drives to help Black citizens vote—but not without violent attempts to stop it. White farmers evicted Black sharecroppers off their land, leaving families stranded and forced to live in tents. White shopkeepers also refused to sell to them. But the voiceless did finally speak. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act legally ended voter discrimination.

Rescued from the doomed Titanic moments before its sinking, stewardess Marjorie McTavish is determined to find happiness at last. The dear friends who stood by her on that fateful night have vowed to help her now, and Marjorie, ever hopeful, accompanies them to the bustling port of San Francisco to begin all over again, far from the gloomy slums of Glasgow. Anything is possible in America, it seems - especially romance.

Black activist Opal Lee had a vision of Juneteenth as a holiday for everyone. This true story celebrates Black joy and inspires children to see their dreams blossom. Growing up in Texas, Opal knew the history of Juneteenth, but she soon discovered that many Americans had never heard of the holiday. Join Opal on her historic journey to recognize and celebrate "freedom for all."

After the death of her beloved husband Billy, Daisy Majesty falls into a deep depression. Everyone, from her family to her late husband's best friend, Sam Rotondo, worry about her. She's too depressed to eat and only mopes around the house.

On the fateful night of the Titanic disaster, heiress Loretta Linden made sure her friends and fellow passengers got to the lifeboats before she even thought of herself. Her soft heart is legendary - and her desire to help others is her great passion. She will not rest until her little band is safely reunited in her native San Francisco - where she meets the dashing Captain Quarles.

Running from a painful past, Gracie fled to New Mexico - and Jake - with a child named Charity in her arms. It had been 14 years since Gracie and Jake had seen each other, but it seemed like yesterday. And though Jake knew that his town was no place for a woman and child, he had never been able to resist Gracie's pleas for help.

Rescued by a quirk of fate, Somerset FitzRoy remembers little about his ordeal in the icy water. But he cannot forget the frightened child who begged him for help that night - and her mother's beautiful face haunts his dreams. Days later, he is overjoyed to find Isabel and Eunice among the survivors in New York. Will she remember him? She must - because their love was meant to be.

Callida Prophet never would have suspected that her stubborn, sullen employer had such a tender way with words. He certainly doesn't show much affection toward beautiful six-year-old Becky, Callida's charge and his only child. But in the love letters he wrote years ago - which Becky finds and asks Callida to read to her - he is a completely different man. Poetic. Passionate. Utterly devoted. And suddenly, Callida sees this moody, mysterious widower with new, more loving eyes.

Penelope Potter was thrilled to go to London with her brother, Harry, for his best friend's wedding. And she was determined to ignore the jealousy that arose at the thought of Art Collingsworth marrying another woman. Besides, she already committed to a life of independence - free from love or marriage. But Penny didn't expect to be thrown together with Art to puzzle out Harry's bizarre change in behavior. It was almost as if Harry was . . . possessed?

It's early October 1923, and three interesting things are going on in the generally dull town of Rosedale, New Mexico: the fall cattle drive, the fall rodeo, and a tent revival. Annabelle Blue is excited about the first two events. The last one might be okay if it weren't for the Reverend Milo Strickland's sister, Esther, whose ethereal loveliness has captivated all the men in town, including Annabelle's long-time beau, Phil Gunderson.

It's the "Roaring '20s," but you wouldn't know the era was roaring if you lived in southeastern New Mexico. Except for the occasional "flicker" at the local motion-picture palace, it might as well be 1883 as 1923. When young Annabelle Blue's eccentric aunt Minnie begins complaining about ghosts in her home, poor Annabelle is sent out to Minnie's isolated ranch house to aunt-sit. She's not happy about it.

For nine-year-old Lorraine Jackson, the Sanitation Strike of 1968 hit close to home. Lorraine marched with her daddy and other sanitation workers through the streets of Memphis fighting for equal rights and safer working conditions. With her mother, she boycotted stores. Lorraine’s life was forever changed when she heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preach his famous sermon “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” to the tired and frustrated strikers. Dr. King was tragically killed the next day, and hope seemed shattered.

Mercy Allcutt's imagination is more exciting than her job as secretary to P.I. Ernie Templeton. As usual, she has nothing to do except gaze out the office window overlooking Pasadena and imagine the plots of stories she plans to write someday. Generally, when she watches the alley behind the Figueroa Building, she needs to imagine someone being strangled, but today was different. She calls the police to report the murder, but the corpse is gone before she hangs up the phone.