What is the importance of Spring City, Massachusetts in the book, We Love You, Charlie Freeman: A Novel?

Spring City, Massachusetts, is the black community in Courtland County, Massachusetts, where most black people live, having been historically segregated there. Spring City, in the 1920s, is the home of Ellen Jericho, and is where she teaches school. It is a poor and working-class community. In the 1920s, Spring City is visited by Dr. Gardner, who uses Ellen in his experiments. In the 1990s, after being overwhelmed by the truth of the past of the Institute, Charles and Charlotte go have breakfast at a diner in Spring City –a place they consider safe beyond the Institute, and where they feel socially accepted.