Friendship between students and professor results in compelling book

— The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

A black teenager left to fend for himself in a small rural Oklahoma town in the 1940s.

A white drugstore owner whose belief in the young boy transcends race and the rigid social mores of the day.

This scenario inspired the fictionalized version in the novel “A Rainbow in the Dark,” written by two Oklahoma men, Dr. Wade McCoy and Patrick Chalfant.

The novel is based on the real-life story of the authors' former college professor, Henry “Kirk” Kirkland, Ph.D.

McCoy, who practices family medicine in Bethany, said Kirkland taught him and Chalfant when they were students at Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

Both authors, who are white, said Kirkland, who is black, inspired each of them during their time at Southwestern, along with thousands of other students at the Weatherford university.

McCoy, 46, said he found out about Kirkland's inspiring life story during their many conversations throughout the years.

And, in an unexpected twist, McCoy discovered through genealogy research that one of his ancestors, a slave owner at one time, and one of Kirkland's relatives, a former slave, lived in the same Alabama county during the same time period.

McCoy said this discovery, his enduring friendship with Kirkland, and Kirkland's friendship with a white drugstore owner, reminded him of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s hope that people, regardless of their race and background, could connect through bonds of friendship and love. King made the statement in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“It's such a legacy to Dr. King. It really is about content of character,” McCoy said.

Chalfant agreed.

“The things that I've learned from him (Kirkland) are very essential to Dr. King's message.”

Kirkland said the genealogy discovery made by his former student convinced him that divine intervention was at play.

“That's why I think there's a higher power that is handling all of this,” he said, smiling.

McCoy smiled, too.

“So we stumbled upon each other in Weatherford more than 100 years later. The story is bigger than us. It's about love and grace.”