Prospect Book Club Next Read

Prospect Book Club members voted on the next book and the result is "Say I'm Dead", by E. Dolores Johnson. This book will be discussed at the online meeting on Wednesday March 29th at 7:30 PM. https://tinyurl.com/ProspectBookClub

Meeting ID: 880 1394 8307 Passcode: 679417

Reviews posted on Amazon.com state: "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 Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills

Say I’m Dead is the true story of family secrets, separation, courage, and transformation 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.