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Race, Family, and Identity
August 19, 2020 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT
Join us for a virtual conversation with Buffalo-native author and diversity consultant E. Dolores Johnson for a discussion of her memoir, Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love.
Wednesday, August 19, 2020 from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Hosted by Claudine Ewing of WGRZ- Channel 2
United Way of Buffalo & Erie County’s Leadership Society, in partnership with Buffalo State College, Cradle Beach, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Buffalo Alumnae Chapter, and the NAACP, invites you to a compelling conversation on race and identity with famed author and Harvard-educated business executive E. Dolores Johnson. The daughter of an interracial couple, Johnson will discuss her parents’ secret marriage in Buffalo in the 1940s, the search for her own identity and what it means to grow up black in America.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Say I’m Dead 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 antimiscegenation laws in the 1940s, E. Dolores 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. When she began to pry, her mother’s 36-year-old secret spilled out. Her mother had simply vanished from Indiana, evading an FBI and police search that had ended with the conclusion that she had been the victim of foul play.
Praise for Say I’m Dead:
“With unflinching honesty, E. Dolores Johnson shares an enthralling story of identity, independence, family and love. This timely and beautifully written memoir ends on a complicated yet hopeful note, something we need in this time of racial strife.” – De’Shawn Winslow, author of In West Mills
If you would like to read Say I’m Dead before the event, you can purchase the book here
: https://www.amazon.com/Say-Im-Dead-Family-Secrets/dp/1641602740
To learn more about E. Dolores Johnson’s story, you can also visit her website: https://www.edoloresjohnson.com/
