Where Blood Runs Black and White

About the Book

             “The book captures an important legal and historical moment  and conveys a powerful social  message.”

                      In the deep South during the early fifties, a promising young high school graduate’s hope to attend college is handicapped by family poverty.   Joey Henderson, the son of a black sharecropper, eagerly accepts a proposal to meet his educational costs if, for the NAACP, he will attempt to enroll in a local all-white institution (to further the organization’s aim to eliminate segregation).  Both his parents and his girlfriend Abby disapprove of this bold act and indeed Joey is faced with opposition and eventual violence.  After a lengthy court case led by Thurgood Marshall and others, young Henderson is admitted to the white school—only to meet the danger and circumstance of intense bigotry.  This is an emotional story of sacrifice and determination which typified the pre-civil rights era and, on this occasion, transformed a rural community.

About the Author

In a 40-year career in broadcasting, Emeritus Professor Robert LeRoy Bannerman wrote and directed more than 300 hours of dramatic and documentary programs for radio and television. Six of these presentations received national honors and one program an international citation. He contributed programs to the major networks, most notably the prestigious (CBS) Columbia Radio Workshop. Educated at the University of North Carolina and the Univesity of Alabama, Professor Bannerman has written a number of articles and several books, both fiction and nonfiction, including the highly acclaimed biography of Norman Corwin, noted writer-producer of classic radio programs during the ero of World War II. Having researched radio's Golden Age, he is an accepted authority of this aspect of broadcast history.