I’m delighted to welcome Jann Alexander and her new book, Unspoken, The Dust Series, to the blog with The History Behind Unspoken.
The History Behind Unspoken
When the Biggest, Baddest, Blackest Dust Storm of Them All Struck the Texas Panhandle on April 14, 1935, It Set the Stage for the Opening of Unspoken (A Dust Novel).
That Sunday, April 14, 1935, would forever be known as Black Sunday. But it began quite differently, as the main character, Ruby Lee Becker, recalls at the outset of Unspoken:
“That Sunday in April 1935 in the Panhandle was an uncommon bright day which didn’t reflect our family’s desperation. What little breeze there was blew gentle, unlike the stinging winds we were accustomed to. The spring air was so clean you could almost inhale it deep without coughing up dirt. The sun was golden and hopeful. Our families who’d been farming this desert during the five long years of the drouth were well acquainted with hope, though it was a currency our town’s shuttered bank no longer accepted.”
The black blizzard on Sunday, April 14, 1935 was the most notable of hundreds over the decade that had already prompted mass migration from the Plains states. It became known as Black Sunday — because it was a rolling mass of tumbling black soil, over 1000 feet high, that blackened the sun, suffocated entire towns, and struck elders and children alike with the “brown plague”— the deadly dust pneumonia.
The spot where Unspoken is set, a mythical town called Hartless in the Texas Panhandle, was then considered the epicenter of the Dust Bowl. The sudden drama of that bright clear day in 1935 inspired my story of scattered family, their lost mother, and the abandoned daughter who’ll stop at nothing to remake family and rebuild home.
We know those years now as The Dust Bowl era, caused by a land rush on overgrazed ranch land sold cheaply to unsuspecting farmers and speculators, abandoned when prices fell in the midst of drought. By 1935, the Southern Plains states had already experienced more than five years of drought and high winds.
The upshot? Over that decade known as the “Dirty Thirties,” over 2.5 million Americans migrated away from the Great Plains states, with more than half a million people left homeless. There were approximately 7,000 deaths from dust pneumonia and suffocation.
In 1935, that one Sunday in April was enough to show the rest of the country what the land made barren had cost its inhabitants. The Dust Bowl states deserved federal intervention. Within two weeks, Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act, which created a permanent agency to guide restoration in the hard-hit Plains states and maintain natural resources everywhere.
The agency familiarly known then to farmers and bankers as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) has become the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) today. Its mission is the same: to work with land owners and users in all 50 states — to reduce soil erosion, improve forest and field land, improve farm yields with less-thirsty crops, and develop and protect natural resources.
But back in 1935, in Unspoken, Ruby Lee Becker can’t breathe. The Becker family has clung to its Texas Panhandle farm through years of drought, dying crops, and dust storms. The Black Sunday storm threatens ten-year-old Ruby with deadly dust pneumonia and requires a drastic choice—one her mother, Willa Mae, will forever regret.
“This brown plague was different,” Ruby thinks. “Nobody knew how you could fix air that wasn’t fit to breathe.”
To survive, Ruby’s must leave the only place she’s ever known. Far from home in Waco, and worried her mother’s abandoned her, she’s determined to get back. As she matures, wanting the one thing she cannot have—the family and home left behind—Ruby Lee becomes even more resolute.
Even after twelve years, Willa Mae still clings to memories of her daughter. Unable to reunite with Ruby, she’s broken by their separation and haunted by losses she couldn’t prevent.
Ruby Lee has lost everything—except pure grit. Through rollicking adventures and harrowing setbacks, the tenacious Ruby Lee embarks on her perilous quest for home—and faces her one unspoken fear.
Book Trailer
Here’s the Blurb
A farm devastated. A dream destroyed. A family scattered.
And one Texas girl determined to salvage the wreckage.
Ruby Lee Becker can’t breathe. It’s 1935 in the heart of the Dust Bowl, and the Becker family has clung to its Texas Panhandle farm through six years of drought, dying crops, and dust storms. On Black Sunday, the biggest blackest storm of them all threatens ten-year-old Ruby with deadly dust pneumonia and requires a drastic choice —one her mother, Willa Mae, will forever regret.
To survive, Ruby is forced to leave the only place she’s ever known. Far from home in Waco, and worried her mother has abandoned her, she’s determined to get back.
Even after twelve years, Willa Mae still clings to memories of her daughter. Unable to reunite with Ruby, she’s broken by their separation.
Through rollicking adventures and harrowing setbacks, the tenacious Ruby Lee embarks on her perilous quest for home —and faces her one unspoken fear.
Heart-wrenching and inspiring, the tale of Ruby Lee’s dogged perseverance and Willa Mae’s endless love for her daughter shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who bravely lean on one another, find comfort in remade families, and redefine what home means.
Buy Links
Meet the Author
Jann Alexander writes characters who face down their fears. Her novels are as close-to-true as fiction can get.
Jann is the author of the historical novel, UNSPOKEN, set in the Texas Panhandle during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression eras, and her first book in The Dust Series.
Jann writes on all things creative in her weekly blog, Pairings. She’s a 20-year resident of central Texas and creator of the Vanishing Austin photography series. As a former art director for ad agencies and magazines in the D.C. area, and a painter, photographer, and art gallery owner, creativity is her practice and passion.
Jann’s lifelong storytelling habit and her more recent zeal for Texas history merged to become the historical Dust Series. When she is not reading, writing, or creating, she bikes, hikes, skis, and kayaks. She lives in central Texas with her own personal Texan (and biggest fan), Karl, and their Texas mutt, Ruby.
Jann always brakes for historical markers.
Connect with the Author
Posts
Discover more from MJ Porter
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
MJ Porter 
Thank you so much for hosting Jann Alexander today, with such an interesting background history post linked to her new novel, Unspoken.
Take care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club
LikeLike