A TREE WITH ONLY ONE LEAF: Multiple Vertices Connected by One Path

Volume III of a thirteen short volume mini-series, “A Tree with Only One Leaf”. Volume III is the third book in a tale that spans decades. It is a raw, compelling new series of short stories, the sum of which will eventually be integrated as the component parts of a single novel of historical fiction. The entire series of stories explores racial discord in America, and they are all loosely based upon the life and experiences of the stories’ author, Cassandra L. Welch. “A Tree with Only One Leaf: Multiple Vertices Connected by One Path” marries historical acts with semi-autobiographical story telling. The entire series of these short stories seeks to educate a younger generation of new readers about the civil rights movement. The stories are told from the perspective of the author, as she experienced many of the events described in the stories. They relate both to her experiences of these historical and important times and include some of her own achievements that are relevant to the lessons that these stories examine and pass on to the reader. The stories are told in a way that is accessible to the intended readers and are told against a rich cultural backdrop that includes universal themes that are common to all peoples.Follow the heroine, Emily Richardson, as she comes of age and rapidly learns to overachieve - skills that will eventually prepare her to take on a Fortune 500 company in one of modern-day America's most defining racial discrimination lawsuits.This tale is derived from a factual and historical background, in which Black people have been long denied - for what seems endless years, the opportunity to tell their own stories in their own voices, as everyday African American families who were born in our America. Their tale is based in abundant historical fact and the facts of current events that are well known. The story is told from the perspective of those who personally experienced it and saw it…there is nothing more American than that. In this so-called “post racial America”, it is only too clearly demonstrated by events and the by words and deeds of far too many current day people it could be argued that more racism exists now than at nearly any other preceding time, including the period commonly referred to as the “Civil Rights Era”. During the Civil Rights Era, there were - at least - boundaries and lines drawn in the sand, although they were crossed repeatedly at least each side knew where they stood. But in America today, there is so much overt and shameless racism and bigotry by Americans that it pretty much appears at the time of the writing of this story that the culmination of these years-long efforts to fashion politics of White identity, racial resentment, and hatred have succeeded. Every time we think that some event or policy or act descends the lowest of all possible lows (perhaps “absolute lowest”?), that things can’t possibly devolve any further, we find instead that a new bottom will likely be struck tomorrow, or the next day, or the following week. It’s an ongoing pattern and it is a process that is doing grave and accumulating harms to the entire American Nation. With the election of the first Black president, commentators and pundits said that Americans could now believe that African Americans had achieved racial equality, or at least that they would achieve it in their lifetimes. As President Barack Obama used a universalist message and adopted a racially transcendent strategy, which might seem at odds with his self-definition as an African American, he came to be defined as a “post-racial” candidate, in a “post-racial” America. The promise of an electoral victory did indeed call for a strategy that would avoid race-specific issues that, at the same time, reassured voters their interests would be best served. As has often been observed, “The more things change, the more they remain the same”. The heroine of the story Young Emily’s life is presented through her own eyes.

The youngest of thirteenchildren, born to Pastor Julius C. and First Lady Eula E. (Wright) Richardsonin Beckley, West Virginia in the 1960s she is an exemplary model of the richfamily values instilled in her, the embodiment of hard work, integrity, andsincere faith. Her father was a coalminer for forty years while serving aspastor of one of the most notable congregations in the black church community inher small town, so leadership and service was naturally handed down like a goodpiece of an older sibling's clothing; her mother, an innovative domestic engineer,added something new and even more magnificent to the piece with eachhand-me-down, until it eventually became something new and wonderful, a custom-tailoredpiece of love and advice that Cassandra applied wholeheartedly.

Cassandrahas held many director seats and gained inspiration while serving as executivedirector of the Rosa Parks Institute for Self-Development and one of the chairingdirector for many NAACP events and movements. She is a Civil Rights advocate,lobbying for the National Employment of Lawyers Association (NELA) and theNational Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), as well as other volunteerefforts. Cassandra utilizes her transitional leadershipskills to write with patience and energy. Her talents work synergistically,guiding her through powerful storms, to beautiful rainbows. Through it all, she stays the course. She workshard, but that diligence comes from a place of inspiration and peace ratherthan fear and necessity. She works her passion, lives it every day, and bringsit alive in her stories.

Inthe past few years, something has shifted within the author. She has learned tolive a life of meaning, and like the lively, passionate Emily penned in herpages, she has discovered that the path to one's destiny does not have to bepredetermined in order to be fulfilled.