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Ralph Waldo Emerson famously observed, “All history is biography.”  As our nation continues to explore historical schisms centered on race, we’ll look at these questions in the context of one mixed-race family.

In her new book, Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love, E. Dolores Johnson, the daughter of an interracial couple, tells the story of her parents’ decision to flee Indianapolis and its strict anti-miscegenation laws in the 1940s to secretly marry and raise their daughter in upstate New York.  Later as she researched her father’s black genealogy, she unearthed the remarkable story of her mother’s 36-year old secret that defined their family.

E. Dolores Johnson was born in Buffalo, NY. She earned degrees from Howard University and Harvard Graduate School of Business. After a career in tech, she took an MFA equivalent course to learn creative writing. Johnson is a published essayist focused on inter-racialism.

Co-sponsored by the Robbins House.

E. Dolores Johnson’s new book Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love is available for in-store and curbside pickup as well as shipping via Media Mail thanks to our partners at the Concord Bookshop.  Order your copy here.

Please note that this forum is virtual.  Participants will be emailed a link to watch the program live on Tuesday, July 21.

This is a free event.  Donations are encouraged to support the Concord Museum’s Education initiatives.

This program is supported in part by the Sally Lanagan Fund.