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The Remarkable Story of Two Families who Share the Tomlinson Name - One White, One Black
Thomas Dunne
August 2014
On Sale: July 22, 2014
448 pages ISBN: 1250005477 EAN: 9781250005472 Kindle: B00HTJJSWQ Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Tomlinson Hill is the stunning story of two
families—one white, one black—who trace their roots to a
slave plantation that bears their name.
Internationally recognized for his work as a
fearless war correspondent, award-winning journalist Chris
Tomlinson grew up hearing stories about his family’s
abandoned cotton plantation in Falls County, Texas. Most of
the tales lionized his white ancestors for pioneering along
the Brazos River. His grandfather often said the family’s
slaves loved them so much that they also took Tomlinson as
their last name.
LaDainian Tomlinson, football great
and former running back for the San Diego Chargers, spent
part of his childhood playing on the same land that his
black ancestors had worked as slaves. As a child, LaDainian
believed the Hill was named after his family. Not until he
was old enough to read an historical plaque did he realize
that the Hill was named for his ancestor’s
slaveholders.
A masterpiece of authentic American
history, Tomlinson Hill traces the true and very
revealing story of these two families. From the beginning in
1854— when the first Tomlinson, a white woman, arrived—to
2007, when the last Tomlinson, LaDainian’s father,
left, the book unflinchingly explores the history of
race and bigotry in Texas. Along the way it also manages to
disclose a great many untruths that are latent in the
unsettling and complex story of America.
Tomlinson
Hill is also the basis for a film and an interactive web
project. The award-winning film, which airs on PBS,
concentrates on present-day Marlin, Texas and how the
community struggles with poverty and the legacy of race
today, and is accompanied by an interactive web site
called Voice of Marlin, which stores the oral histories
collected along the way.
Chris Tomlinson has used
the reporting skills he honed as a highly respected reporter
covering ethnic violence in Africa and the Middle East to
fashion a perfect microcosm of America’s own ethnic strife.
The economic inequality, political shenanigans, cruelty and
racism—both subtle and overt—that informs the history of
Tomlinson Hill also live on in many ways to this very day in
our country as a whole. The author has used his impressive
credentials and honest humanity to create a classic work of
American history that will take its place alongside the
timeless work of our finest historians
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