Setting
The musical takes place in Crossway, GA which is just another small town on the way to the next one. Everybody knows everyone who lives there.
The black section of town lies across the tracks and there are a few black owned businesses – one of them is a hole-in-wall bar, a car garage and the other is a nightclub that will soon open.
The other main black businesses are the churches. There are several. Antioch Missionary Baptist, the Ferguson family church, is well-known and will soon have an unwelcome neighbor when the new nightclub opens.
All residents – black and white – do most of their business in town where there are a number of stores and other businesses such as a local movie-house.
The Fergusons live on the outskirts of town. Their home is located off a main road surrounded by fields. A white picket fence surrounds the property. The house has two-stories and is plain, but well kept.
Time It is the late sixties and the late summer.Summary
The story is about Loula Mae Ferguson and family who live in Crossway, Georgia. It takes place in the south during the late 60s - during the civil rights time. Loula is a single mother of four children - Sterling, Jesse, Duke, and Ludiwici. The boys are young, good-looking, healthy men. Ludiwici is the baby who is entering adolescence.
Loula works cleaning houses, doing hair, selling eggs from chickens she raises and renting rooms out of her house to boarders. She is a strong woman who works hard and a strict, but loving mother. She is a regular and devoted churchgoer, and insists the same for her children.
The plot concerns what is happening in the community. A nightclub is opening in the vicinity of Loula’s church. She and her fellow church-members have gotten wind of this and are planning on protesting when the club opens.
Her youngest sons – Sterling and Jesse – also have plans regarding the nightclub. They work in a garage with their oldest brother, Duke; but intend on performing at the nightclub on opening night to showcase their talent and jumpstart their dream of being professional singers.
Early in the musical another character, Cat, arrives on the scene. She gets off a bus heading into town and is befriended by Ludiwici who is constantly playing too close to the highway and waving at passing traffic. Cat is returning from the north and brings with her a different attitude that Ludiwici and others in town are not used to – some would call it outspoken, other might call it uppity. She ends up staying with the family and becoming a part of the events that impact them and their future.
