A.D.

A.D., Saab Lofton, III Publishing, 1995

In the year 2030 A.D., America is run mostly by the White Aryan Resistance, with several Midwest ststes given to the Nation of Islam to run as they see fit. Set in Chicago, it's a land where music, films and books are forbidden, where the Fruit of Islam, a sort of internal secret police, constantly patrols the streets looking for anyone not acting properly Black Muslim-ish.

After being fired from his job as a rewriter of history, Elijah Isiah, a husband and father who never cared for "the system", meets the underground, a group of people who save what they can of late 20th century culture, and who must stay mobile or face death at the hands of the authorities. Elijah also learns that his real name is Fred Hampton Rush, and that, as a boy, he was left behind at the airport as his family fled during a mad exodus of people out of what is now called the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in North America.

Fred's growing rebellion catches up with him, and he is arrested for sedition. Expecting a death sentence, he is put into suspended animation as a medical experiment and not found for 380 years.

America has become a Libertarian Socialist Democracy where blacks and whites live together in harmony. Fred finds, to his shock, that Elisha, his son, was the person who led the fight to overthrow the old system and replace it with the new system. Fred is shown around 25th century Chicago by Huey Newton Rush, a direct descendant, who works in the practically extinct profession of peace officer. But all is not well in Utopia. The hatreds and fears of the past have not totally departed.

This is quite a thought-provoking book. A person could quibble with things like the political and philosophical speeches sometimes going on for too long. This book is not exactly easy to find in the local chain bookstore; that's a shame, because it's more than worth the search.