Hi, I’m Meghan McKenzie. I have the kind of hair that tells me the weather. Today will be humid. That means my hair will double in size by this afternoon, and I have a press conference to attend later. I need to look professional.

I’m a reporter at the Detroit Free Press—the youngest, actually—but today I won’t be there as a journalist. I’ll be part of the story. Full disclosure: it makes me uncomfortable.

The leaders of the largest social justice organizations in the country are meeting in Detroit this weekend and they’ve asked me to talk about the story I broke a few years ago. One that uncovered the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham, Alabama. The story was big. I was nominated for a Peabody Award, and it changed my life. But not just for professional reasons.

I’d convinced my editors to let me follow a couple of leads on a super old crime. My great-grandfather had been killed by Birmingham police officers in 1929. He was on his way to work, just minding his business, when he was stopped by a uniformed patrolman. The official record says he “resisted arrest” but this was the Jim Crow south, so he might have only asked why he was being detained. According to family lore, my great-grandmother started asking questions and filing complaints. That was a no-no for Black people back then. Great-grandma had to be whisked to safety along with my grandmother who was only two-years-old at the time. She recently turned ninety-five.

Anyway, I went to Birmingham for a couple of weeks, and eventually uncovered the facts of my great-grandfather’s murder, but it was tedious work. I followed the trail on a few important pieces of information, and scanned through the archives of hundreds of old newspapers—boy that was grueling. I also talked to a lot of older residents—they carry the oral history of Birmingham with them. I had a lot of help from good people who wanted my story to be told. I’m also convinced I had some “divine” guidance from great-grandpa.

Anyway, I stepped on a few important toes when I started asking questions, and these people didn’t want me digging up the dark details of Birmingham’s past, or revealing the current secrets I’d stumbled upon. I was threatened, and worse, which only made me more determined. The bottom line is I got some closure for grandma, and filed a damn good story. That’s what a reporter does.

I’ll tell you what I discovered last year. There’s tremendous value in remembering America’s past legacy of systemic racism. It doesn’t feel good, but it’s the only way to make an honest assessment of our progress.

Dr. King said something like ‘the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.’ I know it doesn’t always work that way, but I became a true believer of that statement in Birmingham. I mean think about it? How, in the world, will we recognize justice, if we’re not crystal clear about what injustice looks like?

That’s what I’m saying at the press conference today. That it’s important to remember, and tell our stories. Not for laying blame, or pointing the finger of shame, but to keep us all bending toward justice, as elusive as that may be.

Okay. I’ll get off my high horse now. I don’t want to be late for the press conference, and I’ve got to do something with my hair. Darius will be there. I met him in Birmingham. He works in the Mayor’s Office of Social Justice, and well…he’s a hunk.

Time’s Undoing
Genre: Crime Fiction, Historical
Release: February 2023
Format: Print, Digital, and Audio
Purchase Link

A searing and tender novel about a young Black journalist’s search for answers in the unsolved murder of her great-grandfather in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, decades ago—inspired by the author’s own family history

Birmingham, 1929: Robert Lee Harrington, a master carpenter, has just moved to Alabama to pursue a job opportunity, bringing along his pregnant wife and young daughter. Birmingham is in its heyday, known as the “Magic City” for its booming steel industry, and while Robert and his family find much to enjoy in the city’s busy markets and vibrant nightlife, it’s also a stronghold for the Klan. And with his beautiful, light-skinned wife and snazzy car, Robert begins to worry that he might be drawing the wrong kind of attention.

2019: Meghan McKenzie, the youngest reporter at the Detroit Free Press, has grown up hearing family lore about her great-grandfather’s murder—but no one knows the full story of what really happened back then, and his body was never found. Determined to find answers to her family’s long-buried tragedy and spurred by the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, Meghan travels to Birmingham. But as her investigation begins to uncover dark secrets that spider across both the city and time, her life may be in danger.

Inspired by true events, Time’s Undoing is both a passionate tale of one woman’s quest for the truth behind the racially motivated trauma that has haunted her family for generations and, as newfound friends and supporters in Birmingham rally around Meghan’s search, the uplifting story of a community coming together to fight for change.

About the author
Cheryl A. Head (she/her) is a writer, television producer, and broadcast executive. She is also the author of the award-winning Charlie Mack Motown mysteries, whose female PI protagonist is queer and Black. Head is an Anthony Award nominee, a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, a three-time Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist, and winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award. Her books are included in the Detroit Public Library’s African American Booklist and in the Special Collections of the Library of Michigan. In 2019, Head was named to the Hall of Fame of the New Orleans Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, and in 2022, she was awarded the Alice B Readers Appreciation Award. Head is vice chair of the national Bouchercon board of directors. She lives in Washington, DC, with her partner, and with Abby and Frisby, who provide canine supervision.

All comments are welcomed.