- December 30, 2025 Social Justice
The Racial and Cultural Justice Committee (RCJC) has started a virtual book club for CSJ sisters, associates and agrégées. Our focus is on broadening our knowledge on issues pertaining to social justice and culture, racial disparity, gender, LGBTQ+ rights and immigration through different lenses to become better advocates for and agents of transformational social change.
In September, we held our first online book club gathering to discuss Percival Everett’s book, “James,” a fictional reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.
The novel is written from the perspective of the enslaved person, Jim’s point of view, contrasting from Mark Twain’s original narrative focusing on Huck Finn. The reader receives a first-hand view of the constant struggle James endured to maintain dignity and self-worth while forced to live the life and persona of the enslaved person, Jim. The “Jim” versus “James” moments in the book are the most moving.
Everett depicts James as the highly intelligent and literate side of Jim. James is focused on his life and journey as he calculates survival to get back to his wife and daughter, who were both sold away from the plantation where they once lived before the enslaved Jim was falsely accused of a crime. His alter ego, Jim, is smart enough to know what he needs to do to survive and not offend his enslavers. He knows when to change his manner of speaking, his gestures, the way he walks, and even hide the symbols of his self-worth and dignity, the scraps of paper and a pencil he used to capture his thoughts — evidence he was not someone’s property, but a man who could read and write.
As many in our group shared, Everett’s book gave us a glimpse of the impact slavery had on the enslaved people from the viewpoint of the enslaved.
We walked in Jim’s footsteps as he tried to survive slavery and later braved the treacherous banks of the Mississippi River with James as he sought salvation, freedom and dignity.
While the novel deals with some difficult topics, many of the book club participants found the book enjoyable to read and even more so to discuss. We hope you will add this wonderful reimagining of a familiar novel to your reading list, too.
Join us for our next reading and discussion on Feb. 3!
