A different drummer / William Melvin Kelley.

The state -- The African -- Harry Leland -- Mister Leland -- One lone ago autumn birthday -- The Willsons -- Dymphna Willson -- Dewey Willson III -- Camille Willson -- David Willson -- The men on the porch.

"This is the story of what happens when the people of a small Southern town are one day confronted with a most curious development. A Negro named Tucker Caliban, descendant of a long line of faithful retainers, suddenly seems to go beserk. He spreads salt on his hard-won land, shoots his livestock, burns down his home, and with his wife and child, takes off for parts unknown. At once, as if on signal, all t he other Negroes begin to leave the state - and they don't come back. The chain of consequences for those who are left reaches back into the past, to the first African, to successive generations of a wealthy white family. While in the tightly linked present, a young boy's trust, a wife's loyalty, a leading citizen's integrity, a crusader's vulnerable convictions, and a Negro's emerging pride are dynamically unfolded and drawn to a devastating climax." - from dust jacket.

"Told from the points of view of the white residents who remained, A Different Drummer stands, decades after its first publication in 1962, as an extraordinary and prescient triumph of satire and spirit." - books.google.com