2024 Eisner Award-winner Tony Washington created original cover art for The Agitators: A Reminiscence depicting what the narrator sees today from the front steps of his hometown justice center. The hardcover dust jacket contains this image, named "Confederate Memorial," while the image "For All Mississippians" represents the narrator's hope for the future and is printed on the case laminate binding.
Today, the narrator sits on the courthouse steps in Carrollton, Mississippi, and gazes at the town square's Confederate flag flapping in the breeze. He reminisces about the adventures he had more than 50 years ago with his teen friends while the adults around them fought over social issues.
In 1968, Carroll County was the epicenter of everything wrong with race relations in the state. Its proximity to violence against "agitators" as well as an incident at its own center of justice kept fanning passions over fairness and rights. A verdict on ending local school segregation would certainly anger many more.
But for the local teenagers, life must go on with hope for the future. Shadrach and Penny become friends with the new boy in town, Matthew.
Penny rides her pony, Pinto, to the town square. Matthew pleads with his parents for a motorcycle. Shadrach pushes back on adults enforcing racial norms. The three hold out hope they will attend school together with their friends in the fall.
Sam, the newspaper publisher and father of teen Matthew, unwittingly fuels the community's divisions through biased opinion pieces. Interactions with a Black cotton farmer, public school administrators, and even Shadrach cause Sam to report on local issues differently. He resolves to use his influence to repair divisions and improve community relations. In an impetuous attempt to unite his town, Sam convinces a Hollywood studio to use Carrollton as the location for a movie based on William Faulkner's The Reivers: A Reminiscence. However, when a violent group learns of the diverse cast coming to town, long-simmering tensions boil over and crosses burn.
The Agitators: A Reminiscence is a fast-paced, dialog-driven story written in a style that induces visualization and evokes cinematic imagery. The novel vividly illustrates how-decades before social media-local newspapers in small rural communities could inflame passions, influence opinions, and drive consequential change. Historical events, often involving racial justice leaders who were labeled "agitators" at the time, are presented through the clever use of original newspaper clippings. The narrator interrupts his own omniscient point of view periodically to address the reader and recount how these important events affected him. In these moments, he uses clippings from 1886 through 1968 in conjunction with typewritten essays he wrote as a teen to prove the truth of his reminiscences, often to startling effect. Through it all, the narrative reminds readers life goes on, with hope for the future, thanks to the agitators.
