Refiner's Fire
"Jim Boatwright is the grand master of dialogue, highly capable of offering up the landscape of the Jim Crow era in the South."-W. Lee Slaight, author of Jaguar on the Mountain
"Refiner's Fire sadly reminds us of a time in South Carolina's racial oppression that we should never forget. The characters authentically convey both the horror and complexity of the Orangeburg Massacre."-Teresa Brown, manager, Richland County Library
Based on True Events.
From the red clay of South Carolina to Washington, DC, and Tehran, two men bound by a shared history must confront a nation at a crossroads.
When the building of the Saluda River Dam claims their family land, the Bartholomews are forced to start anew on raw earth, but manage to create a prosperous peach-growing enterprise. Two generations later, Rufus Bartholomew works those orchards alongside Joe-Joe Daniels, the son of a beloved local Black midwife. Raised side by side under the stifling weight of the Jim Crow South, the two forge a bond deeper than blood-a quiet brotherhood that defies every line drawn between them.
As their paths diverge, Rufus enters county politics while Joe-Joe works in covert military operations in Iran before returning to South Carolina. In February 1968, when student protests against segregation escalate on the SC State College campus in Orangeburg, the two men find themselves directly at the center of the unfolding crisis.
Witnessing state police open fire on unarmed Black students-killing three and wounding forty-seven-Joe-Joe and Rufus must navigate the devastating aftermath and its effect on their friendship, holding onto the stubborn hope that the fire which consumes can also refine.
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