Book Talk

The Network is thrilled to welcome author E. Dolores Johnson to discuss her book, Say I’m Dead. Johnson’s memoir about family secrets, race, identity, and love that tells the story of her Black father and White mother, who fled Indiana and its antimiscegenation laws forbidding their relationship and secretly married in Buffalo, NY in the 1940s.

Societal norms dictated that their child’s birth certificate indicate that she was Black, erasing her mother’s White blood from her identity. Later, as a Harvard-educated business executive feeling too far from her Black roots, Johnson researched her father’s Black genealogy and discovered that her mother’s White family was missing.

Recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists, Booklist, and Powell’s bookstore, Say I’m Dead aims “a potent lens at what it means to be biracial and [shines] more light on the racism that continues to sicken this country every day,” according to The Boston Globe.

Books are available at BookEnds in Winchester, the Winchester Public Library, or via this link.

Register here.