During Racism’s Remission:

From Colored Fieldworker Black Professor was written in a large part because of the pandemic. In the fall of 2020, I began to write some of my life stories down for my sons, just in case something happened to me with the virus. I didn’t want my personal history lost along with me. The list of events, situations, and recollections began to grow, and as I started to flesh out the narrative, it was clear to see that an autobiography was developing. Early in 2021, I put the project down as things began to seem more optimistic with the projected availability of a vaccine and it remained dormant for the vast majority of the year. In December of 2021, I decided to complete the manuscript and get it published.

In DRR, I share my journey from rural poverty to undergraduate years at Delaware State College, service in the Marine Corps, completing graduate studies at the University of Delaware, and close to 25 years of teaching and working at Delaware State University. Events in my life are examined through a prism of race relations (and sometimes racial tension) for a fifty-year period that I describe as a remission of racism,  the cancer of America. Years of optimism in finding an ultimate cure, with justice, equality, and harmony as outcomes, now seem threatened by signs of a relapse in the cultural health of the nation. Issues surrounding race in the years leading to, and including, 2020 are also discussed.

This is my first literary effort and I really enjoyed the process. The ancillary activities of editing, formatting, cover design, submission for publication, advertising, website development, and author-specific social media (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) have extended my rather steep learning curve into the world of book production. While I have managed to avoid the viral bug thus far, I’ll have to admit that the “writing bug” has gotten me, and I look forward to two or three more books in the near future.