A damaged building. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
A house blown off its foundation and a demolished car. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
A demolished house on Main Street. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
A view of the destruction leading down to Gum Pond. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
A house standing amid the destruction with Gum Pond in the background. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
Tupelo High School, which sustained major damage. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
The Hill, the African-American neighborhood that overlooked Gum Pond. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt.
Scattered debris from the tornado. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
Residents of the Hill survey the damage. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
Bodies of African Americans, including a child. Some bodies were laid out in the old Hardin’s Bakery, some in the alley behind it. Photo by Otis N. Pruitt
Residents await news as rescuers assist victims. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
Medical personnel examine a wounded woman. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
National Guard personnel unload soup kitchen equipment from a boxcar. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
This five-year-old boy lay unidentified in a Memphis hospital until his grandfather recognized him from this newspaper photograph. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
Men dredge Gum Pond, searching for victims who were blown into the water and drowned. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
A man sits on a piece of foundation amid the wreckage of his home. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
Crosstown, where the Frisco tracks intersect West Main Street. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
A family surveys a severely damaged home in the white area of Tupelo called Willis Heights. This area, like the African-American area called the Hill, took the brunt of the storm. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
The author’s grandparents’ home still standing amid the devastation. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
Victim being loaded into a Tennessee Valley Authority vehicle. Tupelo was the first TVA-powered city in the country. Courtesy Oren Dunn City Museum
Victim being removed from a home. Courtesy Oren Dunn Museum
Man amid the wreckage on the Hill. Courtesy Oren Dunn Museum
A volunteer, possibly a nurse, attends the injured. Courtesy Oren Dunn Museum
Goats, dead and alive, amid the wreckage. Courtesy Oren Dunn Museum
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MINROSE GWIN is the author of The Queen of Palmyra, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award, and the memoir Wishing for Snow, cited by Booklist as “eloquent” and “lyrical”—“a real life story we all need to know.” She has written four scholarly books and coedited The Literature of the American South. She grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, hearing stories of the Tupelo tornado of 1936. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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ALSO BY MINROSE GWIN
The Queen of Palmyra
Wishing for Snow
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
PROMISE. Copyright © 2018 by Minrose Gwin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Cover design by Elsie Lyons
Digital Edition FEBRUARY 2018 ISBN 978-0-06-247173-4
Print ISBN 978-0-06-247171-0
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