Yet I had gone through high school, college an Afro American studies major, had gotten a Ph.D. and testified before a Senate subcommittee, led by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. They were on the nightly news on every major network. When I started researching, I was really astounded by how big a deal it was at the time. KAYLA GRANT: What made you want to dive into this story?ĭOLEN PERKINS-VALDEZ: I was just shocked it hadn’t been written yet. Shondaland caught up with Perkins-Valdez to discuss Take My Hand, women’s health care rights, winning the NAACP award, and more. Although the novel was inspired heavily by the true story of Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf, two Black women who were involuntarily sterilized as young girls at a federally funded clinic, Perkins-Valdez says that it also was influenced “by every low-income family that found themselves being convinced that this was the right procedure for their children.” The NAACP Image Award-winning novel highlights the stories of young Black women who were forcefully sterilized in 1973 by the federal government in Montgomery, Alabama. Her third release, Take My Hand, continues her passion for highlighting Black stories. Her debut novel, Wench, follows the story of four Black enslaved women before the Civil War, and her second novel, Balm, explores the lives of three people after slavery ended. Perkins-Valdez believes that Black stories need to be told. “I didn’t come from a reading household, so that’s how I knew I was a true reader,” she says. An unforgettable story about love and courage, it is also a timely and uplifting reminder that one person can change the world.Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s writing career may have begun in college when a short story that she submitted to a magazine was published, but she has loved books and storytelling since she was a child. Inspired by true events and a shocking chapter of recent history, Take My Hand is a novel that will open your eyes and break your heart. When Civil discovers a terrible injustice, she must choose between carrying out instructions or following her heart and decides to risk everything to stand up for what is right. Neither of the two young sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling their welfare benefits, that’s reason enough to have them on birth control. She wants to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.īut when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a tumbledown cabin and into the heart of the Williams family, Civil learns there is more to her new role than she bargained for. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference in her community.
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