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Revisits a Mississippi boyhood through an ethnographer's lens
How Come When It’s Thunderin’ You Don’t See the Moon is the coming-of-age story of renowned sociologist Terry Williams. It illuminates his experience of growing up as a quiet, observant, and industrious Black boy in Baertown, Mississippi, during the 1950s and '60s. The book offers a deep reflection on the long-lasting effects of racial violence in American history, and how home and memory connect these events.
As an ethnographer, Williams draws on decades of interviews, personal reflections, and a wide range of archival material to vividly portray the everyday experience of segregation, and the lingering effects of the Jim Crow era today. He reveals a personal history of incredible resilience and adaptation, from civil rights organizing in Mississippi, to graduate school in New York, and eventually an unexpected career in academia. Williams invites readers into his childhood as he picks pecans, redeems glass soda bottles, lingers in alleys behind jook joints, and listens to the adults' conversations on the porch.
Ultimately, How Come When It’s Thunderin’ You Don’t See the Moon captures the political complexities of Williams’ youth, leading the reader on a journey through the very nature of memory itself.
