Memaw Reads

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: Ebook

Historical Setting: 1970s Montgomery, Alabama

Take My Hand follows Civil Townsend, a 23-year-old Black nurse working at a federally funded family-planning clinic in 1973 Alabama. The story also moves to 2016, when Civil is 67 and looking back on the events that shaped her life.

This was a story that definitely made me think about the overreach of government and the way vulnerable people can be harmed when those in power fail to protect them. I felt both angry and deeply saddened by what these young girls and women—many of them poor and Black—were subjected to. They were forcibly sterilized, often without meaningful consent or the ability to protect themselves. Reading about what was done to these women was shocking and difficult, and it made the injustices fo that time painfully real.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez did an excellent job shining a light on these injustices. The story was incredibly eye-opening and education and it gave me a lot to think about long after I finished reading.

Overall, this was a difficult but important story and I’m glad I read.