E. Delores Johnson on Her Family Memoir ”Say I’m Dead” - 6-17-20

This episode was recorded from my live show on WFSK Radio in Nashville on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 4:00 pm (cst) News from the community came from Michael Milliner from Omega Psi Phi Fraternity gave details on a Father's Day Prayer Service. The guest was E. Delores Johnson author of Say I'm Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love. 

 

Her book is the true story of family secrets, separation, courage, and trans-formation through five generations of interracial relationships. Fearful of prison time—or lynching—for violating Indiana’s anti miscegenation laws in the 1940s, Ms. Johnson’s black father and white mother fled Indianapolis to secretly marry in Buffalo, New York. 

 

When Johnson was born, social norms and her government-issued birth certificate said she was Negro, nullifying her mother’s white blood in her identity. Later, as a Harvard-educated business executive feeling too far from her black roots, she searched her father’s black genealogy. But in the process, Johnson suddenly realized that her mother’s whole white family was—and always had been—missing. W