Louisiana native returns to West Baton Rouge to share story rooted in Jim Crow
Author Linda Lowe Erley returned to West Baton Rouge for a reading and book signing of her debut novel, a historical fiction inspired by the woman who raised her during Jim Crow.
PORT ALLEN — Linda Lowe Erley came home earlier this month to share a story six decades in the making.
Erley, a West Baton Rouge native now living in Colorado, held a reading and book signing May 8 at the West Baton Rouge Museum for her debut novel, Rainbow Over the Bayou: Jim Crow Through the Eyes of a White Girl — a faith-based historical fiction that traces her upbringing in Southern Louisiana through the lens of the Black woman who raised her.
"I was inspired by Lillie Mae, who raised me and my sisters from birth," Erley said. Lillie Mae — fictionalized as Willa Mae in the novel — cared for Erley's family for decades, a relationship that endured until her death roughly six or seven years ago. The book is dedicated to her as "my second mother."
It was the weight of that relationship — and what it meant during segregation — that drove the book.
"She would come to our home and take care of us, this privileged white family, but at the same time carrying the burden of Jim Crow on her shoulders," Erley said.
The novel spans dual timelines set in 1960 and the present day, weaving together civil rights history with themes of faith, love, and reckoning. At more than 600 pages and 80,000 words, it's a large undertaking for a debut author — one that took two years to formulate, three years to write, and another six months to edit.
Her husband joked about asking when the next book was coming.
"Never," Erley said, laughing.
Asked whether the story still holds relevance today, Erley didn't hesitate.
"I absolutely do, because actually it's a faith-based historical fiction, and so I feel God's light, love, and hope can still be found in the darkest of times," she said.
Her message to readers was simple: "To never forget and just grow in conversations about a dark time in our history."
The book is available on Amazon. Erley said she hopes to produce an audiobook in the future and is considering narrating it herself.
Rainbow Over the Bayou is Erley's first published novel.
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