Leaving Freedom to Find Peace

One of the things Donal H. Godfrey stresses the most in this powerful new memoir is that he truly loves America. He desperately wanted to believe that it was the land of the free and the home of the brave, but often his home country ended up breaking his heart over and over again. Now, Godfrey discusses the state of affairs that led to his emigration from the United States and the peace and comfort he found in his adopted home of Ghana. One of the defining moments in Godfrey's life came in February of 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was here that the Ku Klux Klan bombed his family home in retaliation for Godfrey's enrollment in an all-white elementary school. Several members of the KKK were arrested and tried for the crime. They were all acquitted. Godfrey's memoir serves as a stirring condemnation of American racism. He traces the KKK's origins to their surprising connection with those in the highest office of the United States. Godfrey shows the deep scars hatred has left on the American landscape and argues that the only way he could fully escape America's shameful history was to leave the country behind entirely.