The novel begins in 1975, toward the end of the Black Power Movement. The movement, which formed in the post-Civil Rights era of the 1960s, advocated for racial pride, political equality, Afrocentric education, and economic self-sufficiency for African Americans. The Black Power Movement was controversial because, unlike the Civil Rights Movement, it did not eschew violence as a means of political resistance. The FBI targeted these activists through their domestic counterintelligence arm, Cointelpro, which was notorious for persecuting activist groups deemed subversive to American society. Cointelpro was mostly active during the 1960s and early 1970s.

This timeline is significant because Sandy Lee’s illegal activities—harboring activists wanted by Cointelpro or Interpol—takes place when the hardline Black Power movement is dying down and black activism is becoming more mainstream. Deck says that Sandy is “ten years too late to be storing radicals” (22). Sandy is surprised that Deck does not approve of her activism: “I told you not to mess with those crazy thugs” (118), he tells her. His use of the word “thugs” smacks of judgment and signals that he does not see himself as part of their group.

Boston’s shifting political reality provides the perfect

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