Featuring a
presentation by Faye
Howell
In researching my
African American
lineage over a span
of twelve years or
more led me to many
stories about my
paternal great
grandmother Roxie
Callahan. Many said,
she had a gentle
demeanor most of the
time, but on several
occasions where she
had to defend
herself or her
property, she did
not hesitate to
expose her bad
temper. Roxie’s
character led me to
choose her life
story as the focal
point of writing a
screenplay taken
from one of my books
titled, “Shaking My
Tree”. In 2006, over
150 copies were sold
before the first
printing.
Roxie, growing up as
a sharecropper’s
daughter lived near
Abbeville,
Alabama in the small
town of Tumbleton.
There she witnessed
first hand the
harshness of
southern racism
before and after the
turn of the century.
This exposure left
her bitter towards
most whites during
her entire lifetime,
even after migrating
to the Florida
Panhandle.
Her father learned
to read and write as
a child. A white
playmate on the
Smith
Plantation where his
parents labored as
former slaves taught
him. As my history
continues, this
white playmate later
became Roxie’s
mother. Even though
slavery had ended,
many whites did not
want the “Colored’s”
to learn fearing
they would become
equal to themselves.
Not the white Smith
family, they treated
the blacks on their
farm with respect,
the same as always
throughout many
generations
passed.
Also for
generations, Roxie’s
grandparents as
slaves labored for
this same family,
starting out in the
backwoods of
Tazewell County,
Virginia, on the
Callahan Plantation,
on to Coddle Creek,
North Carolina, then
to Jackson County,
Tennessee, to Dallas
County, Alabama and
finally settling in
Henry County,
Alabama.
According to an
agreement made
between the white
widowed farm owner
and Roxie’s father,
he became manager of
one of the largest
plantations in
southeastern
Alabama, along the
Chattahoochee River
banks. Many white
farmers in the area
objected to this
wealthy widowed
woman having a black
man overseeing such
a large plantation.
Therefore, death and
destruction came
upon the blacks on
the Smith farm and
on other farms
nearby. Whites
retaliated against
the black’s freedom,
once again.
My being obedient
to God made it all
possible.
Faye Walker Howell,
Author, Producer
Lynette Holmes,
Co-Producer
Sheri Cakir, Writer
2009 All rights
Reserved
