Confederacy of silence

the long version

Fresh out of the Ivy League, the author answers a help-wanted ad for a journalist and suddenly finds himself thrust into the center of Greenwood, Mississippi, an old Delta town. While covering the local high school team, he meets Handy Campbell, its star seventeen-year-old quarterback, a poor, unknown black kid from the projects who had never played on any team till his senior year. But Handy is also the greatest natural talent anyone can recall, and by the end of the season, he has won unimaginable glory. Greenwood's welcoming face hides darker secrets, however, and ultimately the cub reporter must leave it in order to preserve his own sense of right and wrong.