One of the important supporting characters in a new novel I expect to publish in the fall is a Black veteran of World War I. He got me to wondering how much, or how little, [...]
Looking on the Good Side
The Black and White of It: Southern Newspapers in the 50s
The first line of my novel Found in Pieces identifies Pearl Goodbar as the new owner and editor of a weekly newspaper, the Unionville Times, in 1958. That responsibility alone would have been challenge enough [...]
Pen, Paper, and Nerve on the Go: More Remarkable Newspaperwomen
There is a scene in my novel Found in Pieces where Pearl Goodbar, the story’s main character, gets to hear two of her journalism role models speak at an event that actually occurred in real [...]
From Human Rights to Muckraking: More Waymaking Newspaperwomen
Pearl Goodbar, the lead character in my novel Found in Pieces, has guts. And she stands on the shoulders of giants. Readers say what they like most about her are her work ethic, her dogged [...]
Pearl and the Pioneering Newspaperwomen Who Paved Her Way
While I was writing Found in Pieces—my second novel about the 1950s South—no one asked me why I chose a woman newspaper editor as the main character. But if they had, I would have said, [...]
“Getting Right” with Racial Equality and Equal Justice
This blog may aggravate some people, though it shouldn’t. In any case, as a long-time professional educator and historian and now an author of novels intended to illuminate the evils of racial discrimination, I would [...]