Charles M. Clemmons
Charles M. Clemmons was born at home in the countryside near Clayton, North Carolina, on a State Forest. Growing up in the American South, working on his father's farm, and exploring 300 acres of forestland proved to be formative life experiences.
He has received an engineering degree from NC State University; an MBA from the University of Connecticut; and an AAS degree in Film & Video Technology from North Lake College in Irving, Texas.
Retiring from a corporate career in telecommunications in 1994 at age 50, he refocused on his real passions: documentary filmmaking, photography, and discovering the history and lifeways of his parents’ families in Brunswick County, North Carolina.
He has been awarded two New England Emmys® (writing and production) for the American Public Television documentary, Mystic Voices: The Story of the Pequot War.
His inspiration for Aila’s Journal came from his own experiences and aspirations growing up in the American South, his own family's oral history, and his historical research of the Civil War and Southern Reconstruction.
He has received an engineering degree from NC State University; an MBA from the University of Connecticut; and an AAS degree in Film & Video Technology from North Lake College in Irving, Texas.
Retiring from a corporate career in telecommunications in 1994 at age 50, he refocused on his real passions: documentary filmmaking, photography, and discovering the history and lifeways of his parents’ families in Brunswick County, North Carolina.
He has been awarded two New England Emmys® (writing and production) for the American Public Television documentary, Mystic Voices: The Story of the Pequot War.
His inspiration for Aila’s Journal came from his own experiences and aspirations growing up in the American South, his own family's oral history, and his historical research of the Civil War and Southern Reconstruction.
Aila's Journal: A Tale of Southern Reconstruction
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Historical Fiction
In 1864, two 13-year old girls meet on James Sanders' small farm just south of Wilmington, North Carolina. Aila MacKenzie is an indentured servant, and Mary Jane Sanders is a Black slave. The end of war has left the South, the community, and personal lives in shambles. Jubilation over the emancipation of the slaves is replaced by oppression, discrimination, hatred, and violence directed toward Blacks and their sympathizers. The two women suffer similar abuse and struggle together with hardships through Reconstruction and into the beginnings of the Jim Crow era, culminating in the 1898 coup d'etat in Wilmington. In the coup d'etat, Conservative Democrats overthrew the duly-elected government in Wilmington, replaced it with Conservative Democrats, and murdered many Black people in the process. Through their shared hardships and life experiences, Aila and Mary Jane become lifelong friends. 
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