Her 2015 book, Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County, is about a protest during the school desegregation crisis in Prince Edward County, Virginia, led by student Barbara Johns. The county's response eventually led to the closing of all public schools, white and black.[6] Her book not only describes an historical event, but also shows that the fears and exaggerations that allowed segregation to take place are still very alive in today's United States.[7] The Washington Post named it on its list of "notable nonfiction" for 2015.[8]
Published works
Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County (2015)[9][10][11][12]
^Thomas J. Sugruejune (June 30, 2015). "'Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County,' by Kristen Green". The New York Times. Kristen Green, who graduated from the Prince Edward Academy about three decades after it opened, returned to her hometown in 2006 to research the county's controversial past. She blends history and memoir in a gripping narrative that revolves around her discovery that "Papa," her beloved grandfather and a well-regarded local dentist, was a segregationist who played a key role in the decision to shut the public schools.
^Joanna Scutts (June 9, 2015). "Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County review – a family's complicity in segregation". The Guardian. But Green's journey shows that relegating blame to a misguided older generation would be wrong. In fact, the narratives of scarcity, competition, and fear that justified segregation – the conviction that your kid's thriving could only come at the expense of another kid's failure – haven't disappeared.
^Green, Kristen (2022). The Devil's Half Acre: The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South's Most Notorious Slave Jail. New York: Seal Press. ISBN9781541675636. LCCN2021-41088. OCLC1262966049.
