Son of a Preacherman

April 23, 2012
Racial and romantic tensions come together in this historical romance based in Tulsa, Okla., in the 1920s from Banks (Ruth’s Redemption). The handsome and valiant Billy Ray Matthias moves to Tulsa with his brother, Napoleon, and quickly becomes enamored of Benjamina “Benny” Freeman, a teacher with a complicated past. The weighty history of the town, the relationships between African-Americans and Cherokees, the Trail of Tears and Prohibition—among other things—are blended skillfully with some of the more tawdry inclinations of some of Banks’s characters. The narrative drags when the town’s resentful white residents are introduced and they plot to incriminate successful black business owners like Billy Ray and the Freemans, but the spirited characters, their steadfast faith, and their will to survive even a deadly race riot carries the story to a satisfying end.