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The Song and the Silence
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
7 posts | 4 read | 30 to read
In this moving memoir, Yvette Johnson travels to Mississippi to uncover the true story of her grandfather and why he was murdereda case that became the basis for the documentary Bookers Place: A Mississippi Story, which the Los Angeles Times called a powerful personal portrait. 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 TV, life for Booker took a turn for the worst. And so began the story that has inspired Yvette Johnson, Wrights granddaughter, to explore her grandfather's lifeas well as her own feelings on racein this fascinating memoir. Born a year after Wrights 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 Rightsera Mississippi, The Song and the Silence is an amazing chronicle of one womans five-year journey in pursuit of the pastand hope for tomorrow.
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arubabookwoman
arubabookwoman
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
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Pickpick

The author, daughter of a pro football player, grew up wealthy and privileged, and rarely thought about racial issues, tho‘ she is black. Then she learned about her black grandfather who in the 1960‘s was a catalyst for the civil rts. movement in Greenwood, Miss.
I learned a lot, and considered questions I‘d never thought about as I followed the author on her quest to explore her grandpa‘s life, & to confront racial issues still with us.

28 likes3 stack adds
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peacegypsy
peacegypsy
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
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A granddaughter‘s story of her grandfather‘s contributions to improving race relations in Mississippi in the 1960s. Let‘s go.

41 likes5 stack adds
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Tamra
Tamra
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
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Fascinating

Congrats @Cathythoughts and thank you for having a giveaway! 🎉🎉 The tagged book was the last physical book I completed. (Taking a year & day to get thru Luminaries! 😆) I sped thru this after watching the documentary about the murder of her grandfather, hoping for more clues about the killer & motive. It didn‘t provide that, but it did flesh out the people involved and times. #onebookoneword

Cathythoughts Brilliant ( the Luminaries is a long one , but those who love it , really love it. My son thought it was an excellent read ) great review & word . I just put you in the hat. My husband says the hat looks like it‘s full of snow ( all your names are in there so far ) 🎩he says it‘s today‘s metaphor (edited) 7y
Tamra @Cathythoughts 😆 Perfect metaphor! I‘m glad your son liked Luminaries. I just got thru the summary and connections of the first section of the book around the 350 pg. mark! That chapter really ties together the accounts of the characters in a chronological fashion and starts to make sense and clarifies the central mystery. My husband was sharing a Guardian review with me and I told him no spoilers! 7y
AmyG I loved The Luminaries. It takes TIME to really get a grip of the story and characters. When you do...you‘re good to go. 7y
Tamra @AmyG 👍🏾 Yes! Did you read anything about what the author has to say about the book after you finished? My husband said in the one review he read that it‘s supposed to be a parody. 7y
AmyG A parody??? Ok, I am off to google. I have only read things about astrology and the book. 7y
74 likes5 comments
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Tamra
Tamra
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
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Discovered the book at the library, but then also found online the documentary the author participated in before writing the memoir. Seems an unusual sequence. Anyway, I‘m going to watch the film this afternoon bc that‘s what I have the energy for. 😏

Tamra I was looking for more on the murderer and the context of the killing in the memoir, hoping she‘d been able to interview or correspond with him, but that must not have happened. (edited) 7y
Tamra Ok, I read on her blog that she did arrange to meet with him, travelled to the prison, got thru security, then he refused to leave his cell & meet her. 😑 7y
66 likes1 stack add2 comments
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BookishMarginalia
BookishMarginalia
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
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First book finished in 2018! I highly recommend this mix of memoir, biography, and sociological tract about the author‘s attempt to understand the life and death of her maternal grandfather, a successful black man murdered in segregation-era Mississippi. Powerful. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #OwnVoices #DiverseReads #CivilRights #LitsyAtoZ #LetterJ

Reviewsbylola Woot woot! 👏🏻🙌🏻👏🏻🙌🏻 7y
Reviewsbylola And starting off with a five star book!!! Incredible. 7y
Dogearedcopy There‘s a documentary, *Booker‘s Place: A Mississippi Story* that complements this book very nicely 🎥 7y
BookishMarginalia @Dogearedcopy Yes! The author talks about collaborating in the making of that documentary. 7y
139 likes23 stack adds4 comments
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libchristina
libchristina
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
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Mannnnn

1 like
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Dogearedcopy
Dogearedcopy
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
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Started reading 'The Song and the Silence' - A NF Memoir about Yvette Johnson's grandfather, Booker Wright. While this is ostensibly about the impact a 3-minute presentation that Booker made for an NBC documentary in 1966, it's also a look at Greenwood, MS - a deeply racist community that embodied the ugliest aspects of The Civil Rights Movement. 'Booker's Place' is the companion documentary to the book (Image: Detail from the DVD cover)

25 likes1 stack add