I knew he was black before I ever saw him at the IHop with his white buddies. I knew, not from some jargon or accent formed in the heat of the Delta but from his deep, resonant, soul laugh— survivor of water, manacles and whips. They sat assessing teams, statistics and the possibility of season…

His hometown decided to honor him at last. We had grown up six blocks from each other but all those people who lived south of Tenth Street were like ghosts to me. The opposite of vampires, they appeared to do yard work, clean houses, wash the cars or cook during daylight hours. Then faded into…

Remembering Ralph Ellison His hometown decided to honor him at last. We had grown up six blocks from each other but all those people who lived south of Tenth Street were like ghosts to me. The opposite of vampires, they appeared to do yard work, clean houses, wash the cars or cook during daylight hours.…

We shared a name. I acquired mine with a husband. His mother gave him his. He rejected it in favor of Washington just the way his father had rejected him. But what of the mother? It was not the name of the man who owned her and I can speak from experience, you don’t name…

Friends, I haven’t posted in a while because I have been deep into the publishing world. I am delighted to report I am working on galleys for the new book and have a lovely cover for it. That’s real progress!. This is a little like having a baby. It just takes whatever time it takes,…

The last summer my husband spent on the family ranch he was eight years old. An old black and white photograph shows him tossing a small lariat in an attempt to snag the back hoof of a calf. Smiling at his boyish efforts, George, the ranch foreman, stands against the fence. Wearing a stained Stetson,…

Why did Jane, Judith and Lucy remain in Kentucky three years before they were able to return to Virginia? Letters, archived in Richmond tell the backstory like a movie. The young women left with their widowed father to join an uncle in business in the neighboring state. No more than settled, the father inconveniently and…

They fought their way into our minds while we were unaware of anything except cheering for our side. First there was Jack Johnson or the Galveston Gorilla as an unforgiving press called him. He moved the Heavyweight from White to Black only to defend reality a second time until there was no hope for anything…