A novel of racial reconciliation in 1950s Charlotte

CAROL BALDWIN

Carol Baldwin (right) interviewed more than 100 people in researching 1950 Charlotte for the young adult novel “Half-Truths” including longtime educator Vermelle Diamond Ely, a 1949 Second Ward High School graduate who grew up in the all-Black Brooklyn community.

Carol Baldwin’s debut novel is about a Charlotte that doesn’t fit the city’s contemporary narrative.

“Half-Truths” takes place in 1950 Charlotte, a time when racial segregation was encouraged by custom and required by law. The protagonists – Lillian, a Black teen and her white friend Kate – come to grips with both. The book, which hits store shelves on April 2 – National Reconciliation Day – is intentional in telling a story of strained relationships and the resilience of truth.

“I think that that’s the first step in reconciliation …we have to admit what we’ve done, Baldwin said. “Kate also had to admit some of her own half-truths that she was telling herself, as well as how she hurt Lillian when she said what she said. So, that’s how my book, particularly I think, ties into reconciliation. It’s a reconciliation between friends who happen to be of different races.

The biggest half-truth is a family secret, one that has long colored relationships in a blended America. The girls are initially unaware of a shared lineage, a taboo subject in the South.

“The main character, Kate Dinsmore, discovers some lies that been told in her family about her family's ancestry, and it’s something that she uncovers with the other main character, who is a Black girl, Lillian Bridges, and they discover that they’re second cousins, and none of that has ever been talked about in the family,” Baldwin said. “So, it’s a family secret that obviously some people know about but has not been communicated to that next generation.”

Publishing “Half-Truths” required 18 years between idea and bookshelves. Baldwin’s curiosity about race relations and the dynamics of mid-20th century America sparked her determination to bring the novel to completion.

“The story takes place in Charlotte in 1950 and when I started thinking about this story, I didn’t have it all that worked out in my mind at all,” she said. “I was relatively new to Charlotte. I've been here now 40 years, so I was about here maybe 20, years (when) I was curious about what Charlotte was like before civil rights, and so I thought that that’s what I would write about, and it is a book that takes place before civil rights, but it’s also a story about a girl who wants to be a journalist, and in 1950 that wasn’t an occupation that was too open to women.”

“Half-Truths” is geared to a younger audience but also suitable for older adults. Because Baldwin leaned heavily on the recollections of people who lived during that era or linked to relatives who did, the story is multigenerational.

“I’m hoping to be a crossover to that market, actually, so at this point, I’ve had more adults who read it read it because they have been my beta readers,” Baldwin said. “So, it's just cracking the teen market. But the reason it’s for teens is because I always wanted to write a book for teens and for young people, and this was the story that came to me. I’m really hoping for readers at both levels – teens and adults – to particularly, I think, older adults who remember the ‘50s or have had family, and they said they’ve heard stories about it.

Baldwin interviewed scores of people who either lived in Charlotte during the 1950s or related to someone who did to learn about race relations during that time. Among them was Vermelle Diamond Ely, a longtime educator and 1949 Second Ward High School graduate.

“I read a bunch of books about Charlotte, books about the South, but one of my main sources of information were the people I talked to,” Baldwin said. “I talked to more than 100 people who either lived in Charlotte at that time or were just a generation away from it, and one of the phrases that they said a lot was, ‘That’s the way it was.’ Both whites and blacks said the same thing – ‘That’s the way it was,’ which is a sad statement to say.”

Racial barriers are sprinkled throughout the novel. Simple interactions that are taken for granted in 2025 were potentially violent incidents 75 years earlier, making the relationship between the girls difficult.

“It hits them in the face,” Baldwin said. “At one point, Kate says to Lillian that she wants to hang out with her. And Lillian is like, ‘Well, where are we gonna do that?’ Can't exactly go to the drugstore, the soda shop and sit and have a drink together. So they end up taking a walk around Freedom Park together, which you wouldn’t have had Blacks in freedom Park. You had [Black] nannies pushing white strollers, but you didn’t have a black girl and a white girl walking around the park. …

“I actually talked to a few people about where could a white girl and a Black girl be. Kate lives with her grandparents. She moves from Tabor City, North Carolina. She moves in with her grandparents in Myers Park, and Lillian lives in Cherry. And in 1950 Brooklyn still existed. So, somebody said, ‘Well, they could have gone to (majority Black) Brooklyn together. They would have been not as looked down, so the white girl could have gone with the Black girl into Brooklyn, but they couldn't have been walking down the street in Myers Park.”

In addition to the book’s release on April 2, Baldwin will participate in a panel presentation sponsored by Levine Museum of the New South on reconciliation through story at South Boulevard Branch Library from 6-7:30 p.m.

She’ll also participate in an April 5 book launch at Park Road Books at 11 a.m.

“Half-Truths” will be available online at amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bookstores.

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