Christopher Cross’s Beat the Drum for Justice is a heartfelt portrayal, by turns inspiring and devastating, of the earnest fight for civil rights spanning the latter half of the 19th century.

Cross’s novel, centering on fictional Gabriel Adams, is both an examination of the 19th century U.S. political landscape and an indictment of the country’s pernicious, deep-rooted racism. Gabe is 14 when he helps a group of people escaping slavery in 1853, among them young Jasmine. Thereafter, he devotes himself to black equality. Through Gabe’s eyes, Cross spares no detail of the cruelties visited upon the enslaved and formerly enslaved—including Jasmine’s rape by Gabe’s cousin—and the violence makes his point about the horrors of that “peculiar institution.”

The novel is lengthened by Cross’s accounting for nearly every key battle and political decision—from the Emancipation Proclamation to Plessy v. Ferguson—in the fight against white supremacism. Gabe fights with John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, supports Abraham Lincoln in his famous debate with Stephen Douglas, befriends Frederick Douglass, and survives the slaughter of the Civil War as a quartermaster working with black “contrabands.” He earns his law degree and takes his battle to the courts, only to see Reconstruction gains slowly stripped away and the 14th Amendment gutted by the Supreme Court. The fight is never-ending, but Gabe never loses sight of the cause.

The prose is clear and confident, and the bleak tone is leavened by Gabe’s friendships with others committed to the mission, black and white. His marriage to Jasmine is a sweet highlight, although they face prejudice for their union.

The narrative also suffers from numerous flaws. Dramatic action is lost in didacticism; battles lack a sense of high stakes and conclude quickly; dialogue shades into exposition, and characters are mostly one-dimensional.

That said, Cross’s message comes through loud and clear. For those interested in civil rights, the novel offers a fuller understanding of a past that still shadows the present.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.