The song and the silence
Subtitle: a story about family, race, and what was revealed in a small town in the Mississippi Delta while searching for Booker Wright
By: Yvette Johnson
Edition: First Atria Books hardcover edition.
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 315
ISBN-13: 9781476754949; 9781476754956
Subjects: Murder victims; Race relations; Family; African Americans; Racism; Biography; History
Description: "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 live. "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"--Dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Part I. Places in time; title: Where he was king; title: Scattered; title: A yellow gal; title: Part II. Family; title: Black is beautiful; title: Coming to terms; title: "Get off this place"; title: Part III. Surface of the deep; title: Colorless; title: A catalyst; title: A place for the planter class; title: Part IV. Some sort of charm; title: A magical town; title: A not-so magical town; title: Making a movement; title: Part V. The delta; title: From the cotton fields to the football fields; title: Fever; title: Town on fire; title: A self-portrait; title: Part VI. Mothers; title: A crack in the world; title: A specific kind of pain; title: A history lesson; title: Part VII. The river's Eden; title: A place to descend to; title: Descendants of master and slave; title: Booker's place; title: Deconstructing a racist; title: Part VIII. A twisted strand; title: Quiet years; title: A murder story; title: Greenwood; title: Part IX. Inheritance; title: Booker's song; title: Remembering.