Set in the 1800s, Ruth’s Redemption, is an unusual depiction of the lives of slaves and free blacks in pre-Civil War America. Bo, was educated while a slave. He was given his freedom and now owns a farm buying slaves for the sole purpose of giving them their freedom. Bo is also a man of God and widower whose life is destined to change when he meets the proud and hard-hearted slave girl, Ruth. Ruth has known nothing but servitude and brutality since being separated from her mother at age thirteen. Purchased and sold primarily for breeding, her heart is filled with resentment and bitterness. Ruth wants no part of Bo’s Godly devotion. Yet Bo is unlike any man she’s known and her experiences with him will leave her forever changed. A gripping slave era novel, Ruth’s Redemption is a story of love, forgiveness, and redemption. Set against the backdrop of the Nat Turner Rebellion in Tidewater, Virginia, this novel shines the light of God’s unconditional love in the darkness of a culture’s cruel socially accepted inhumanity.

Ruth's Redemption

Literature & Fiction

Banks, Marlene

Genre Fiction

Lift Every Voice

A historical romance novel set in the 1920s in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Son of a Preacherman depicts the highly segregated life of African Americans in the Greenwood District, in Northern Tulsa and the tensions leading up to the Tulsa Race Riots. 
Billy Ray Matthias is the handsome younger son of the church’s new pastor. Benny is the daughter of an oil rich family. Billy Ray is convinced that Benny is the woman God would have him settle down with. Benny, on the other hand, recently had her heart broken. She is not the least bit interested in getting involved anytime soon. As Billy’s pursuit of Benny intensifies, so does the political and social climate in the prosperous African American neighborhood known as the Greenwood District.. 
Racial tensions in Tulsa escalate when Dick Rowland, a black man, is accused by a local newspaper of raping Sarah Page, a white woman, on an elevator. Benny's brother Ethan and a radical white attorney by the name of Maynard Vaughn despite continuous threats put their weight and energy behind helping Dick. Meanwhile, the White Glove Society, a racist group seeks to destroy not only Dick but all the African Americans in this successful black owned community. As tensions come to a head and violence breaks out, Billy and Benny are caught up in the heat of chaos. He vows to keep her safe but will Benny let him? And will faith in God be enough to sustain the people of the community as their lives are being changed forever by deadly acts of hatred?

Son of a Preacherman

United States

Greenwood and Archer: After the Riot continues the stories of Billy Ray Matthias and Benny Freeman and the residents of the Greenwood District after the historical Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. Though a sequel to Son of a Preacherman, Greenwood and Archer can be read as a stand alone book. 
The White Glove Society has all but destroyed the Greenwood District, home to the affluent blacks in Tulsa. Now those who have survived are trying to recover what is left including Billy Ray Matthias and Benny Freeman. Billy Ray and Benny are engaged but Benny is hesitant to set a date. Jordan Franks, Benny’s ex-fiancee shows up in Tulsa and Benny is confronted with the memories and emotions of the crippling break up she experienced with Jordan. She must decide whether she will stand and face her past or allow it to drive her back into the dark place she'd grown used to before meeting Billy Ray. Billy Ray’s attempts to keep Benny from running away are challenged by his own struggles as he wrestles with God’s call on his life to preach.
DP Dooley, plagued by a past that prompted him to turn from God and become a government agent, is in a turmoil as he wars against enemies seen and unseen. Internally, he fights against the darkness of his soul as the anger and resentment he has harbored against God for most of his life wears him down. Externally, he continues to fight against the threats of the bigoted White Gloves Society, which is growing and trying to increase its racist activities.. 
The once hard-edged racial views of Chief Tobias Parnell have noticeably dulled and he no longer enjoys the favor of the White Glove Society. Teaming up with Dooley, Chief Parnell fights against illegal racketeering, bootlegging and racial crimes.
A new brotherhood forms in Tulsa, the interdenominational Christian clergyman (ICCA). Braving the social struggles of Tulsa, five clergymen attempt to and bring together God’s people, regardless of race, economic status, gender, ethnicity and even doctrine. Their goal, along with the people of Greenwood is to see a new Tulsa rise from the ashes.

Greenwood and Archer: After The Riot

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Banks, Marlene. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Banks, Marlene

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Banks, Marlene. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Ruth's Redemption

Son of a Preacherman

Greenwood and Archer: After The Riot