Registering to Vote

On page 220 of "From the Mississippi Delta" by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, there is a line that reads "Booker Wright, who had worked for years in a white-owned cafe, went to the courthouse to register to vote one morning, only to find his job gone that afternoon."

This is the first time that I have heard this version of the story. I have been told that he said something in the media that sparked a change of views within the black community. I just looked over my notes from my conversation with Senator Jordan, he mentioned something about Booker being involved in the "voter's league". Was it when he was registering to vote that he made the remarks that so enraged his employers at Lusco's? Or did he get fired for registering to vote? According to Holland, this occurred in 1963.

I found three references to Booker's Cafe in Holland's book, in each reference she is recalling a time when she visited the cafe. In one instance she refers to it in a way that implies she frequented his cafe a lot.

The plot thickens.

Holland in Greenwood

Endesha Holland's book is coming up with some very interesting facts about life in Greenwood. She is an excellent writer. She talks about visiting Booker's Place and describes McLauren Street in great detail. She also mentions several people who were well known in the community. I am compiling a list of people who may have known Booker Wright.

Endesha Ida Mae Holland

I was following the trail of a playwright and professor at USC named Endesha Ida Mae Holland. She grew up in Greenwood and lived there during the time when my grandfather owned Booker's Place. She wrote a play called "From the Mississippi Delta" that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  Maybe I'm naive, but I was convinced that since the town was so small that she would know something about my grandfather. I just found out that she died, ironically, within a few days of Coretta Scott King in 2006.

However, this led me back to a source that I discovered during my summer class, Veteran's of the Civil Rights Movement, crmvet.org. This may a good source for people who were politcally active in Greenwood during the time when Booker was there.

What Is The Plan?

More than anything I want to know. I want the whole story. Not just the civil rights story, but all of it. My mother mentioned that Booker was an orphan and that he spent his life wondering who his real mother was. How does she know, what did he do that revealed how important this was to him? How interesting to have so much in life except the knowledge of where you came from. I would like to explore how this idea played out in Booker’s life.

Booker never learned to read or write, yet he was one of the most successful black businessmen in his town. Was this luck? Was owning a business a dream that he had for years or did he seize a last minute opportunity? What drove him? For many years he worked two jobs, did he get a lot of sleep? Was he sloppy on the job because he was tired?

It seems like Booker was an accidental activist who, in the end, embraced this role. Why? What prompted his actions during the interview he had on the national news? Did he ever waiver in his convictions? Was he conflicted? These questions and thoughts are just the tip of the iceberg. I sense the making of a wonderful story and I want to know the whole of it.

I guess this is the research aspect: learning and getting a glimpse of a day in his life, piecing together the puzzle so that I can best recreate the man in my own mind, half a century later. The next question is, what will I do with what I learn?