Take My Hand

Civil Townsend is a women’s health nurse in rural Alabama in 1973. Fresh from nursing school, she is tasked with attending to eleven and thirteen-year-old India and Erica. After she injects them with the Depo-Provera shot per her supervisor’s orders, Civil questions why such young girls are receiving birth control. In the weeks following, she becomes involved in a harrowing health scandal and is compelled to protect the girls and their families from further harm.

In Take My Hand, author Dolen Perkins-Valdez depicts the plight of the poor African American community and how the health system and the federal government took advantage of them. Civil is a well-off Black woman who makes it her duty to help the less fortunate Williams family. The contrast between Civil’s privilege to the Williams’ impoverishment is evident throughout the book. Parts of the story are hard to read, especially the poor treatment of Erica and India. It is astounding that the key issue of sterilization and health experiments within this fictional novel is based on fact. This story was an important one to read, and though, at times, Civil tried too hard to fix the Williams family, their bond was quite touching.