The Bootheel

By: Leonard, Burleigh C. W.

A WHITE PASTOR. AN ALL-BLACK CHURCH.
A WHITE TOWN THAT EXPECTS HIM TO STAY QUIET.

In the Bootheel of Missouri, race is not debated. It's enforced.

A young white minister accepts his first pulpit, expecting a quiet ministry. Instead, he steps into the Sea of Galilee AME Church: a congregation that is entirely Black and fiercely independent.

The minister's nemesis is Miss Eddie Mae Freeman, the choir director who runs the show at the Sea of Galilee. He wants quiet order and dignity; she wants loud Amens and Hallelujahs.

Tiny, a clarinet-playing bouncer, helps arrange a shaky truce between the two.

Then Rose enters the pastor's home.

She's Young. Pregnant. Alone.

The pastor's wife takes her in, and a private act of compassion becomes a line that shouldn't have been crossed. Now faith moves from the pulpit to the kitchen table. People start talking.

As the pastor pushes for basic fairness for his congregation, he runs headlong into the white establishment: a county judge who expects Blacks to vote for him, a society that expects Blacks to stay in their place. Circumstances sermons alone can't fix.

The pastor is put to the ultimate test.

THE WHITE TOWN IS WATCHING.
THE BLACK CHURCH IS WATCHING.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FXGQWVLX
• ISBN13: 9798315151364
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"