June, 1957. One hot afternoon, in a backwater town in the American South, a young black farmer named Tucker Caliban throws salt on his field, shoots his horse and livestock, sets fire to his house and departs the state. And thereafter, the entire African-American population leave with him.

The reaction to this mass exodus comes from the white townsfolk who remain. Every one of whom - whether male or female, young or old, conservative, bigoted or sympathetic – is grappling with and attempting to explain, this spontaneous rejection of subordination.

As powerful today as it was upon its first publication in 1962, William Melvin Kelley's A Different Drummer is a provocative and prescient triumph of satire and spirit.