DC Public Library System

The song and the silence, a story about family, race, and what was revealed in a small town in the Mississippi Delta while searching for Booker Wright, Yvette Johnson

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-315)

contains biographical information

no index present

non fiction

The song and the silence

bibliography

982465118

Yvette Johnson

a story about family, race, and what was revealed in a small town in the Mississippi Delta while searching for Booker Wright

"In this ... memoir, Yvette Johnson travels to the Mississippi Delta to uncover the true story of her later grandfather, whose extraordinary act of courage changed both their lives. "Have to keep that smile, " Booker Wright said in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time, Wright spent his evenings waiting tables for whites at a local restaurant and his mornings running his own business. The ripple effect from his remarks would cement Booker as a civil rights icon because he did the unthinkable: before a national audience, Wright described what life truly was like for the black people of Greenwood, Mississippi"--Jacket

Part I. Places in time -- Where he was king -- Scattered -- A yellow gal -- Part II. Family -- Black is beautiful -- Coming to terms -- "Get off this place" -- Part III. Surface of the deep -- Colorless -- A catalyst -- A place for the planter class -- Part IV. Some sort of charm -- A magical town -- A not-so magical town -- Making a movement -- Part V. The delta -- From the cotton fields to the football fields -- Fever -- Town on fire -- A self-portrait -- Part VI. Mothers -- A crack in the world -- A specific kind of pain -- A history lesson -- Part VII. The river's Eden -- A place to descend to -- Descendants of master and slave -- Booker's place -- Deconstructing a racist -- Part VIII. A twisted strand -- Quiet years -- A murder story -- Greenwood -- Part IX. Inheritance -- Booker's song -- Remembering