For the smart and free-thinking, Black Market Reads is a podcast featuring conversations with today's most exciting Black literary voices. We are a podcast for any one who loves to read, write, and engage. Black Market Reads is a project of The Givens Foundation for African American Literature.
“We are just a stepping stone away from being back in 1964, if you think that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was gonna be it and it was gonna stop there, I would bet you a mortgage payment, you’re wrong. The gist of the book is if you don’t vote, then you’re part of the problem.
Wanda M. Morris
ANYWHERE YOU RUN weaves crimes, lies and secrets into a hypnotic thriller that finds two Black sisters in Jim Crow era Mississippi facing insurmountable challenges that will change the course of their lives forever.
Wanda M. Morris returns to Black Market Reads. In addition to a riveting discussion of her 2nd novel, Wanda shares the big news – a TV adaptation of her debut novel All Her Little Secrets starring Uzo Aduba is coming to Showtime!
Dripping with Southern atmosphere and blistering suspense, Wanda M. Morris’ sophomore outing proves she is a “writer to watch” (Publishers Weekly). About ANYWHERE YOU RUN: It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right to vote.
MORE ABOUT THE STORY It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right to vote. Against this backdrop, twenty-two year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than she’s ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack, she kills the man responsible. But with the color of Violet’s skin, there is no way to escape Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before anyone can find the body or finger her as the killer, she decides to run.
Back in Jackson, Marigold, Violet’s older sister, has dreams of attending law school. Working for the Mississippi Summer Project, she has been trying to use her smarts to further the cause of the Black vote. But Marigold is in a different kind of trouble: she’s pregnant and unmarried. Marigold sees no choice but to flee Jackson too. She heads North seeking the promise of a better life and no more segregation.
Two sisters on the run—one from the law, the other from social shame.
About the Author: Wanda M. Morris is an alumna of the Yale Writers Workshop and a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Crime Writers of Color. As a corporate attorney, Wanda has worked in the legal department of some of America’s Fortune 100 companies. As the former President of the Georgia Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, she established a signature female empowerment program known as the Women’s Initiative.
The story in ANYWHERE YOU RUN takes place two months after the murder of three civil rights workers – James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner – and one month after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Learn More …
North vs. South: The “Great Migration” between 1916 and 1970 when 6 million Blacks moved from rural areas of the south to areas of the north only to find racial prejudice in housing and jobs as well as other inequities.
Burgeoning Feminism: The concept of what a “good girl” is and how women were ostracized during the early 1960s for not fitting into that concept.
Author Wanda M. Morris in conversation with BMR Host Lissa Jones
