White Lilacs

As a piece of historical fiction, White Lilacs is grounded in historical fact while weaving in characters and events that are fictional. Although the novel takes place nearly 60 years after the end of the Civil War, Meyer explores the remnants of slavery and racial injustice that continued to exist in the 1920s. Although free citizens by law, Rose Lee and her community continue to be oppressed by the institutional systems in place in Texas at that time, leaving them vulnerable to the decisions of the white community in Dillon.

The conflict at the center of the novel—the decision by the City Council of Dillon to destroy Freedomtown to form a city park—is based on real events in Denton in 1921. Meyer writes that, while living in Denton in 1991, she was present at the unveiling of a historical plaque. It commemorated the lives of the citizens of Quakertown, a “thriving community” of Black citizens who were “required to move [after] a bond election was held to raise $75,000, to create a city park on the 27 acre Quakertown site” (240). Little is known of Quakertown aside from this plaque, much of it actively hidden as a “taboo subject,” by Black citizens out of fear and white people out of “embarrassment” (240-41). In White Lilacs, Meyer reimagines the issues that the Black citizens of Quakertown must have faced through the fictionalized Freedomtown, exploring issues of systemic oppression, racial violence, and inequality in 1920s Texas.

The novel also grounds itself in historical events and figures, showing the impact that civil rights activists elsewhere would have on a city in northern Texas in the 1920s. Rose Lee’s brother, Henry, becomes fixated on Marcus Garvey, a Black activist who focused on Pan-Africanism, the idea that Black people across the world faced universal oppression and should work together to become liberated. In the novel, the reaction to Henry’s quoting and pushing of Garvey’s ideals—especially the return to Liberia—were reflective of the hesitancy of Black people to embrace Garvey during his lifetime. Instead, his ideas were later used as a foundation for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in the mid-20th century. As shown in the novel, Black people were still largely controlled by Jim Crow, the KKK, and financial and social inequality, fearing that any efforts to change their situation would be met with violence and systemic resistance. As a result, they resisted following the teachings of Garvey through much of the early 20th century.

Conversely, Poppa and the older generation of Black men sided with Booker T. Washington, who pushed for hard work, vocational education, and, ultimately, integration into white society. In retrospect, Washington would become known as a “racial accommodationist” for his “reject[ion of] the pursuit of political and social equality with whites” (“Booker T. Washington.” PBS). Due to the control that white society had in the 1920s in the South—through politics, voting, money, land, unchecked racial violence, and more—the attitudes of many Black citizens, especially ones who lived through the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction as those in Freedom had, aligned with the views of Washington; they worked hard, learned vocational trades, and were largely employed by white families in an effort to integrate into post-Civil War society. Henry is representative of the newer generation of young Black men, especially those who served in World War I and saw how differently Black people were treated in societies in Europe. The novel conveys the struggle between the more revolutionary ideologies of Garvey and the conservative ones of Washington through Henry’s fight to get the citizens of Freedom to resist relocation.

While the ending of White Lilacs has a bleak tone, with the citizens of Freedom allowing themselves to be moved and struggling to establish a livelihood and new sense of community thereafter, it is reflective of The Impact of Racial Injustice in Texas in the 1920s. While facing issues like voter suppression, unchecked and unapologetic violence by the KKK, and a disinterest from the white community in the education and advancement of its Black citizens, many Black people felt hopeless in their fight for equality. Although technically free and equal by United States law, local governments like that of Dillon continued to oppress people of color, using their influence and power for decades after to continue legalized slavery and segregation.