Pearl: The Little Light that Shines

“Pearl – The Little Light That Shines” is the first in “The String of Pearl” series. It tells a story of affects of the Negro migration and integration in the 1950s and 1960s. Many who owned their own homes opened them to strangers and set up boarding homes. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Rebbecca Johnson opened her home to boarders. One of her youngest boarders was a child named Pearline Jennifer Williams, affectionately called Pearl. Pearl moved between two family households. She lived in the boarding home until her parents bought a house and took her to live with them. Pearl’s story contrasts living in the boarding house in Fort Washington, a Negro community 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia; and her family home in the newly integrated Philadelphia neighborhood of Germantown. In one, she was adored, made to feel secure, and gained wisdom beyond her years. In the other, she experienced a strange kind of love, made to feel an outsider, and suffered from physical and emotional abuse. Pearl, The Little Light That Shines shows the reader how she learned to cope and survive despite her young age and inexperience. It tells how she became an accomplished teller of tales taking the reader through her life experiences that helped her mature and flourish.