We had the pleasure of spending an evening, via Zoom, with author, Eileen Harrison Sanchez for our book club, Between Friends. It’s so much fun when you host an author. We were able to get all the background for the novel, as well as answers to those questions that always pop up when you a read a good book. 

Freedom Lessons is Eileen’s personal account of her time spent in a small rural town, Kettle Creek, Louisiana. A few years earlier the U.S. Supreme Court mandated that schools desegregate, but by 1969 many had not. Eileen spent one-school year as a teacher for an African American school when it was directed to integrate into a white school in the same town. The integration took place at the last possible moment (overnight in fact) to not lose its federal funding.

Eileen decided to tell the story through the eyes of a young white teacher (Colleen), a black teacher (Evelyn) and a black student (Frank).  This gave depth to the story and we had a chance to see the effects of this move on the town and its students.  

The author taught second grade during her time in Louisiana and struggled to supply her students with basic materials and books. She was creative and managed to improvise with game playing and performance motivating techniques. Eileen reached out to her students’ parents and worked with them to get library cards for her students. It helped her gain their trust, which was not an easy thing to do at that time in the South.

In the current environment this is a wonderful book for book clubs to read and to start the discussion on racism. All of us enjoyed the book and, of course, speaking with Eileen.  We had lots of questions about her time in Louisiana and how she continued her efforts to seek fairness in the education for all ethnicities throughout her long teaching and administrative years.

We recommend the book and are happy we had the opportunity to meet such an empathic warrior who was brave enough to do the right thing.

Rating: 8.5