Priscilla: Engaging in the Game of Politics

Set in the early 1980s, PRISCILLA Engaging in the Game of Politics portrays Priscilla J. "PJ" Austin, a bright, carefree, and enterprising young woman firmly bound to her father-a Methodist minister and consummate politician. Shortly after starting her career as an assistant professor of political science at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, her father mysteriously asks her to relocate closer to home (Prendergast, New York). Priscilla reaches out to an Ohio state senator with whom she interned during her graduate studies at The Ohio State University and had an affair. The senator offered her a position as his legislative assistant, which she accepted. The story takes off from there.

The opening scene depicts Priscilla as a junior professor teaching students who are not much younger than her at twenty-five. She reflects on her earlier life when, as an adolescent, she was always getting into a spot of trouble. She attended all-Black secondary schools and primarily interacted with Black professionals because that was the reality in the era of racially-segregated America.

She reflects on her life in the Snowbelt of western New York. Priscilla loves the cold and snow, and her hometown of Prendergast gets plenty of it. Throughout, readers gain a firsthand view of Black middle-class family life, which is comparable to any other middle-class family. However, they might especially appreciate learning about how a Black Methodist minister raises his daughter as if she were a son.

From Priscilla's start in the Ohio Senate, everyone wonders why she is there, especially since she has just left a higher-paying job as a college professor. Priscilla never reveals this to anyone-not even her boss, Ohio state Senator Daniel P. Callahan. However, toward the end, she shocks everyone by doing something unimaginable that would typically lead to her dismissal. Readers must keep turning the pages to discover the ending, which is itself intriguing.

Throughout, PRISCILLA: Engaging in the Game of Politics-the series' prequel-delves deeply into the forces that shaped her into who she is: her family roots in highly segregated Mississippi, her upbringing in upstate New York where subtle racism leaves its scars despite her loving father's protection, a campus date rape that leaves her with unhealed wounds, and a scintillating season as a high-powered legislative aide in a life-altering political scandal. Readers also learn intriguing tidbits about Black history, elections, and state politics, as well as how the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly operates and how a bill becomes law.