Through it All, Book Reveiw

Through It All by Christine King Farris is subtitled: Reflections on My Life, My Family, and My Faith. The story might start on January 2, 1863 when Willis Williams and his wife Lucrecia gave birth to a son, Adam Daniel. Farris was three and a half when her grandfather, "AD" died. Farris was in the kitchen helping her grandmother when they heard a thump . Sent to investigate, Farris reported that her grandfather was asleep on the floor. Willis Williams was a slave and AD was born free, just a day after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. AD was also the grandfather of Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr.

Farris takes readers on a journey through it all: the birth of her siblings, who she calls ML and AD; ML's assassination, AD's mysterious drowning in a backyard pool, her mother's murder at church, nieces and nephews untimely deaths at young ages, the deaths of her beloved father and "sister", Coretta Scott King. Farris has definitely been through it and yet she has maintained a sense of humor, strong faith in God and harbors no hatred or ill-will towards those who have harmed her family. A remarkable woman, Farris was eighty years old when she wrote Through It All and still teaching.

Christine King Farris is an excellent writer. Throughout her narrative, she includes quotes, many well-known, from ML and presidents. Due to the equally well-known work of her younger sibling, involvement with government and presidents is not unusual. I like the way Farris wove the quotes into the story, such as when speaking of MLK's daughter, Yolanda and Funtown. The incident found its way into King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, which was actually written on toilet paper and newspaper margins.

Through It All was published in 2009 by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. of New York, NY. The book is 239 pages with an additional four page Acknowledgments and twenty page Index. There is a nice selection of black and white photographs throughout the book. The last page of the story is simply a photograph, taken on January 20, 2008. It depicts a smiling Barack Obama with Farris when he spoke at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where she has been a lifetime member.

Many people feel Senator Obama's presidency is the fulfillment of ML's dream of equality. Farris lived through it all ~ the Jim Crow years, its violent ending and so on. Reading Through It All, you might discover why, almost a 100 years after his grandfather was born free of a slave, Dr. King became a leader in the Civil Rights movement, demanding equality promised by the U.S. Constitution. Although President Obama does not share the King' family ties to slavery, Michelle Robinson Obama's family does. It seems fitting that Farris choose to close the last chapter of her book, Through It All, with a photo of the United States first biracial president.