District of Columbia

Pour of Tour asks, "Will the poor District of Columbia (my disenfranchised, stateless home city) ultimately be part of your project? If so, All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones might be a good possibility."

All Aunt Hagar's Children is Jones's second collection of stories, which span the 20th century in Washington, DC. The book looks at the men, women, and children caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations that await them in the city. With the legacy of slavery just a stone's throw behind them and the future uncertain, Jones's characters give us an illustration of black life in America. Washington, in these stories, is not as much the center of international power as a place offering hope for rural descendants of slaves.