"As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men.""
Of course, you can see where this is going: The Nickel Academy is not a good place. That's putting it mildly; in fact, it is a place of horror, fear, sadism and desperation. Elwood isn't supposed to be there, but he keeps thinking that if he follows the rules, he'll be able to go home. But of course, we, the readers, know that this isn't possible; once a black kid is in this place, he's only leaving to go into jail or a grave.
Told with the narration of Elwood, this story is based on the real story of a reform school in Florida (that yes, was as horrifying as you think it was, operating for more than 100 years). You get some present-time storytelling, and then go back into the past. Elwood is determined and to me, had a steady light inside himself that the Nickel Academy couldn't quite extinguish. However, this is not an easy read and it's the kind of book where I found it a compelling read, but one where I sometimes needed to put the book down and read something else for a bit. Definitely a very good, thought-provoking book.
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