★ 03/13/2017
Johnson’s memoir (inspired by her 2012 documentary film, Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story) recounts the complicated life of her uncle, Booker Wright, and his hometown of Greenwood, a racially divided town in the Mississippi Delta. During the height of the civil rights movement, Wright worked as a waiter at Lusco’s, an upscale restaurant with a white clientele, and was the owner of Booker’s Place, a thriving restaurant serving the black community. In a short segment for a TV documentary on Greenwood, produced in the 1960s, Wright described with stark honesty the racism of Greenwood that terrorized his family and community, causing shock among his white customers at Lusco’s, who thought he was happy to serve them. The footage inspired Johnson to look deep into her family’s history. With profound insight and unwavering compassion, Johnson weaves an unforgettable story of her family and a nation distressed by racism. Her quest leads her deep into the lives of both black and white Americans who have suffered from racism’s isolating effects. She interviews the former leader of Greenwood’s White Citizens’ Council, whom she describes as “a tortured man.” Johnson brilliantly constructs a complex and empathetic look at racism in the South. (May)
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
Narrated by Robin Miles
Yvette JohnsonUnabridged — 9 hours, 42 minutes
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
Narrated by Robin Miles
Yvette JohnsonUnabridged — 9 hours, 42 minutes
Overview
“Have to keep that smile,” said Booker Wright in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time, Wright was a waiter in a whites-only restaurant and a local business owner who would become an unwitting icon of the civil rights movement. For he did the unthinkable: before a national audience, he described what life was truly like for the black people of Greenwood, Mississippi.
Shortly after these remarks aired on television, life for Booker took a turn for the worst.
And so began the story that has inspired Yvette Johnson to explore her grandfather's life-as well as her own feelings on race-in this fascinating memoir. Born a year after Wright's death and raised in a wealthy San Diego neighborhood, Johnson admits she never had to confront race the way southern blacks did in the 1960s. Compelled to learn more about her roots, she travels back to Greenwood, Mississippi, a beautiful southern town steeped in secrets and a scarred past, to interview family members about the real Booker Wright. As she uncovers her grandfather's fascinating story and gets closer to the truth behind his murder, she also confronts her own conflicted feelings surrounding race, family, forgiveness, and faith.
Told with powerful insights and harrowing details of civil rights-era Mississippi, The Song and the Silence is an amazing chronicle of one woman's five-year journey in pursuit of the past-and hope for tomorrow.
Editorial Reviews
“In addition to beautiful, evocative descriptions, a great strength of Johnson’s writing lies in her unique ability to absorb and relay several dimensions of conversations about painful and emotional topics.”
The Song and the Silence is riveting and insightful account of Yvette Johnson’s six-year quest to find out who her grandfather was and how he lived his life. In doing so she shares painful details about race relations during the Civil Rights Era, and sheds light on a period of U.S. history characterized by unspeakable injustice and inequality. A skilled story-teller, Johnson brings history to life with vivid details and powerful narrative techniques.
A heartfelt, beautifully written odyssey for a heritage that was worth seeking. An often emotionally harrowing journey taken by the author . . . . Through many interviews with those who had known her grandfather what she encountered was complex, deeply moving and often painful. Over time she came to appreciate her own legacy, which was a gift not only for Ms. Johnson but for all the readers who go on this journey with her.
Johnson brings a compassionate and uncompromising gaze to the tragic history of her African American family. An unforgettable take on how we are shaped by an unknown past and how an open-eyed and honest voyage through that pain can make us whole.
Insightful and beautifully written, The Song and the Silence is one of those special books that is imprinted on my heart and will be on my mind forever.
"This is the best [book] I have read capturing the essence of the two most important issues of our time—the move of the black race from rural to urban, and the struggle encountered in the move from poor to middle-class.”
“Richly descriptive, unsparing in its account of life under Jim Crow, and a touching account of love that extends over generations.”
“In addition to beautiful, evocative descriptions, a great strength of Johnson’s writing lies in her unique ability to absorb and relay several dimensions of conversations about painful and emotional topics.”
“In addition to beautiful, evocative descriptions, a great strength of Johnson’s writing lies in her unique ability to absorb and relay several dimensions of conversations about painful and emotional topics.”
“Richly descriptive, unsparing in its account of life under Jim Crow, and a touching account of love that extends over generations.”
05/15/2017
Throughout her life, filmmaker Johnson heard conflicting tales about her grandfather Booker Wright, who died in 1973—a year before she was born. He was known in Greenwood, MS, for being one of the few black waiters at a popular whites-only restaurant. However, he was also the respected owner of an eatery that served blacks in this racially divided town during the Jim Crow era and the turmoil of the early civil rights movement. As the author sought to understand this man who seemed to live in two different worlds, she ascertained his life story. Johnson discovered visual footage of Wright's appearance in a mid-1960s television documentary in which he spoke out candidly about racism in the Deep South. Sadly, she also learned her grandfather was the victim of a senseless murder. After years of tenacious inquiry, Johnson coproduced the acclaimed documentary Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story, which premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. In this title, she delves deeper into her heritage to comprehend how her grandfather's life has affected her place in the world. VERDICT This rich and complex family history will appeal to anyone desiring a greater understanding of the consequences of intolerance in America. [See Prepub Alert as Surface of the Deep, 6/21/15.]—Mary Jennings, Camano Island Lib., WA
2017-03-21
"The only thing I felt certain about was how little progress I was making in understanding my grandfather"—a searching quest for roots in the African-American heartland.Raised in Southern California, marked by "proper English and love of Phil Collins," film producer Johnson was deemed "too white" by her black schoolmates and decidedly black by her white ones. She admits to a certain discomfort with other black people, a sense that at least some of her kin were "trying to make life sound harder than it really was in order to justify their own complacency." Much of that sense of privilege melts away in the face of her on-the-ground experiences in her family's old hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi, where her grandfather Booker was murdered in 1973. The circumstances of his death, at the hands of a black patron of his restaurant, speak to untold complexities of race and class. As Johnson writes, Booker was "a difficult man to know." Though he was reserved, he was blessed with a business acumen that had a "Midas touch" element to it but that also brought him into conflict with members of both the white and black communities; he was generous with some, stingy with others, and "so indecipherable that even those who worked by his side for years could only describe him from a relative distance, as if he weren't a real person but rather a well-crafted representation of one." At ground zero of the civil rights movement in the South, Greenwood proved a difficult place for one seeking to be left alone, resented by poor whites and blacks alike for his success; Booker apparently returned the favor, winning enemies as well as admirers. Johnson's story is highly personal, but it folds easily into the larger story of African-Americans striving for economic and political betterment. A timely story of fragmentation and division and of picking one's way through the minefield that was—and is—the racially riven South.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169839043 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 05/02/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
The Song and The Silence
On any given Saturday night in the ’50s and ’60s, the place to be for Blacks in Greenwood, Mississippi, was a little spot called Booker’s Place down on McLaurin Street. In those days, McLaurin was lined with darkly lit, poorly maintained one-room bars and juke joints where shootings, stabbings, and robberies were regular weekend occurrences, but Booker’s Place was different.
While the owners of the other joints on McLaurin were happy with whatever business stumbled through the door, Booker had expectations of his customers. He knew that no matter how tangy his barbecue sauce was or how juicy his hamburgers were, the type of customers he really wanted to entertain weren’t going to tolerate the violence so common on McLaurin. At the first sign of quarreling, Booker would put a stop to it with one of his characteristic lines such as: “Maybe the club you just came from was like the O.K. Corral, but if you gonna come in here, you betta sit down and act right.”
Sometimes before a customer with a bad reputation even made it through the entrance Booker would appear at the door and say without apology, “You can’t come in here, I don’t want you in here.” That was usually all it took. That and the butt of the gun protruding from his waistband.
Booker might have considered the gun to be a necessary prop because, without it, he didn’t look very intimidating. In the early years, he was tall and thin, but even as he got older and put on weight, he didn’t become any more imposing. On the contrary, he had a plump, baby face with copper-colored skin that was smooth and taut. When he smiled his cheeks stretched across the bone and lightened, giving the impression he was backlit by an internal glow. This, combined with his polished smile and manicured mustache, created in Booker not the appearance of a tough nightclub owner but one of a happy-go-lucky kid.
His restaurant developed a reputation throughout the state as a place not to be missed. Its owner was almost as well known, in part because he was so difficult to actually know. Booker had a singular characteristic to him, one that was both elusive and potent. In certain instances, this trait was like a Midas touch, ensuring success and allowing him to evade the financial hardships haunting others like him—Black men living in the Delta. At other times, the quality was alienating, rendering Booker so indecipherable that even those who worked by his side for years could only describe him from a relative distance, as if he weren’t a real person but rather a well-crafted representation of one. What most Greenwood Blacks did know about Booker was that they either loved or hated him; few were indifferent.
Even decades after his death, just the mention of his name would cause some of the local Blacks to stop in their tracks, and with looks of indignant defiance, refer to him as an “uppity nigga.” More than one Black woman complained that Booker only dated “light-skinned girls,” while other people didn’t give a reason for why they remembered him as a “scumbag” who was “lowdown” and “mean,” even going so far as to say that when he was murdered he got what he deserved.
But there were also Blacks who couldn’t wait to tell stories about Booker’s generosity. Like how he let young Black boys eat in his place for free after school just to keep them from running with the gangs, or how he allowed families who were down on their luck to live in his rental properties for free until they were back on their feet. “You’d never meet a nicer person,” one man recalled wistfully.
What Greenwood Blacks could all agree on was the popularity of his restaurant, Booker’s Place.
Booker understood that when people came to his restaurant they were often in need of something beyond just laughter and good food. Many of his customers were seeking respite from the humid, mosquito-filled air of Greenwood, which, for most of their lives, had been thick with fear and uncertainty.
Greenwood was at the center of a colossal battle of wills. By the mid-1960s, two opposing groups had laid claim to Greenwood and both were acting as though the small town was their “hill to die on.” The first was the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), which included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). COFO was a national grassroots group committed to a variety of civil rights activities, with a primary focus on getting Blacks to the polls. Their volunteers were coming into Greenwood from all over the country to encourage people of color to organize, protest peacefully, and register to vote. Many Greenwood Blacks were grateful for their presence, agreed with their message, and risked their very lives by participating in the cause. At the same time, other Blacks feared that the influx of agitators would make their already difficult lives even more difficult. They weren’t entirely wrong.
The other group convinced that Greenwood was a “must-win battleground” was the White Citizens’ Council, whose national headquarters were located in the small town. Initially founded to stop the integration of schools, the council evolved into also opposing other civil rights movement initiatives, like the integration of public facilities and equal voting rights for Blacks. Made up of bankers, businessmen, politicians, members of the planter class, and other people of influence, they used the power of their members to oppose integration.
Blacks involved in the civil rights movement, or rumored to be, often had their rents raised, mortgage renewals on their farms refused, and saw their insurance policies cancelled. They were fired from jobs, and if they happened to be doctors or dentists, their patients were warned not to see them. One bank refused to do business with a Black grocer unless he gave them the records for the local NAACP office he ran in his spare time. So long was the arm of the White Citizens’ Council that some Black activists were even audited without cause by the IRS.
Many elected officials, both state and local, were members. That may be why in 1962, in a move many felt was a direct punishment for local Blacks involved with the civil rights movement, the county’s board of supervisors voted to stop regularly scheduled federal shipments of food, a decision that left twenty-seven thousand residents, of whom most were Black, near starvation.
Word of the unrest in Greenwood became a common topic among the nationwide leaders of the movement. In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. made plans to visit the small town. The night before he was due to arrive, a woman saw Greenwood police officers throwing bricks through the windows of Booker’s Place and two other Black-run businesses in the area. The message was clear: Do not engage with MLK.
Given the town’s virulent response to the civil rights movement, by simply stepping foot into Greenwood King was putting his life in grave danger. With this in mind, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy contacted the Greenwood Police Force and asked if they would protect King during his visit. They refused.
Kennedy called President Lyndon Johnson to discuss the situation, expressing his concern about how the nation would respond if King were assassinated in Greenwood that summer. President Johnson got the message. He called J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, and gave him instructions to have his agents protect King during his visit, specifying, over and over again, that he wanted King guarded both from the front and the back.
King’s visit occurred without incident, but after he left a flyer was distributed throughout Greenwood. It was most likely created either by or with the influence of a man named Byron De La Beckwith, who was a member of the White Citizens’ Council, as well as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The flyer included the following excerpt:
TO THOSE OF YOU NIGGERS WHO GAVE OR GIVE AID AND COMFORT TO THIS CIVIL RIGHTS SCUM, WE ADVISE YOU THAT YOUR IDENTITIES ARE IN THE PROPER HANDS AND YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED. WE KNOW THAT THE NIGGER OWNER OF COLLINS SHOE SHOP ON JOHNSON STREET “ENTERTAINED” MARTIN LUTHER KING WHEN THE “BIG NIGGER” CAME TO GREENWOOD. WE KNOW OF OTHERS AND WE SAY TO YOU—AFTER THE SHOUTING AND THE PLATE-PASSING AND STUPID DEMONSTRATIONS ARE OVER AND THE IMPORTED AGITATORS HAVE ALL GONE, ONE THING IS SURE AND CERTAIN—YOU ARE STILL GOING TO BE NIGGERS AND WE ARE STILL GOING TO BE WHITE MEN.
In this calamitous, murderous, fear-filled world Booker managed—whether through raw ambition, genius, luck, or a combination of all three—to create a space that felt set apart and untouched by terror. The town of Greenwood was politically on fire and just beyond his restaurant door; McLaurin was host to all types of violence between residents and random attacks by local police. But, unless he was standing by that door to play the role of club bouncer, Booker was almost always a picture of uncomplicated ease. His ability to relax in the midst of all that was going on in his community made him seem controlled, powerful, even peaceful.
When he was in his restaurant, Booker spent most of his time moving between tables and chatting it up with his big spenders while an unlit cigar—his “stump”—hung from the corner of his mouth. But it wasn’t just the big spenders who received Booker’s attention. No matter what Booker was doing, each time the front door opened, he’d look to see who was entering, a wide smile would spread across his face, and with the sound of that smile in his warm, raspy voice, he’d call out over the hum of laughter and conversation, “Welcome to Booker’s, glad to see y’all tonight.”
His charm was undeniable, but his food was just as memorable. So popular were the dishes he served that even some Whites made their way not only to the Black side of town but onto the crime-riddled street of McLaurin just to eat at Booker’s Place.
During the height of the Jim Crow era and the tensions of the civil rights movement, this young Black man owned one of the hottest establishments in the Delta, paid cash for cars, had Whites who called him friend, and was wealthy, at least by Greenwood standards. He was viewed as a community leader and many Blacks consulted him on their own business matters.
But there was one more thing.
Most days of the week, an hour would come when Booker had to turn the running of his restaurant over to someone else so he could go to his job at Lusco’s, where he waited tables, serving local Whites. In the early afternoon, he’d leave Booker’s Place and step into the penetrating light of the Delta sun, then climb into his car, which he parked on the curb right out front.
While driving down McLaurin, Booker had to transform himself in a way not unlike a seasoned actor in the precious moments before stepping from behind the curtain. At Lusco’s, he would don his costume of crisp black slacks, a sparkling white shirt, a clean towel folded over one arm, and his trademark smile. Then, he would step into the dining room where he displayed his façade, one that enabled his customers to eat, drink, laugh, and forget that just beyond Lusco’s storefront, Greenwood’s traditions and its shameful inheritance were burning to the ground.
In the handful of minutes it took to travel the eight blocks that separated Booker’s Place from Lusco’s, his elusive, untranslatable quality shifted, and Booker assumed a different face, one never required of him in the place where he was king.
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