Sponsored by Concord Museum and The Robbins House

Video available online https://concordmuseum.org/events/dolores-johnson-say-im-dead/ • 1 hr.

In this fascinating conversation, Concord Museum Executive Director Tom Putnam interviews his Kennedy Library colleague E. Dolores Johnson about her life facing racism and uncovering family secrets. As the daughter of an interracial couple, Johnson 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 in her new book Say I’m Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love. 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.

A Life of Racism

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.
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 the Concord Bookshop.