From the Chief Diversity Officer
Posted: Friday, August 14, 2020'Race, Family, and Identity': A Conversation with E. Dolores Johnson - August 19
Please join us for "Race, Family, and Identity," a conversation with Buffalo native, author, and diversity consultant E. Dolores Johnson, who will discuss her memoir, Say I'm Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love, on Wednesday, August 19, from 11:00 a.m. to noon via videoconference.
The daughter of an interracial couple, Ms. Johnson will talk about her parents’ secret marriage in Buffalo in the 1940s, the search for her own identity, and what it means to grow up Black in America.
Say I’m Dead is the true story of family secrets, separation, courage, and transformation through five generations of interracial relationships. Fearful of Indiana’s anti-miscegenation laws, Ms. Johnson’s Black father and White mother fled Indianapolis to secretly marry in Buffalo.
When Ms. Johnson was born, her government-issued birth certificate said she was Black. Later, as a Harvard-educated business executive, she searched her genealogy, uncovering a 36-year-old secret in the process.
Award-winning author Alex Marzano-Lesnevich writes, “How and why it took her years to claim both heritages, and to unearth the secrets that defined her family, testifies to the complicated history of race relations in America. The family's changes over time mirror what our country has gone through and continues to wrestle with. Her story will both inspire and educate.”
Buffalo State College is a proud sponsor of this event, hosted by alumna Claudine Ewing, ’92, news anchor for WGRZ-TV 2.
