• Home
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
Menu

friendscallmep

  • Home
  • Personal Works
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact

P’S BLOG


Subscribe

Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.

We respect your privacy.

Thank you!

Black History 365 | # 258 Booker Wright

August 10, 2025

This is Booker Wright. In 1965, filmmaker Frank De Felitta produced an NBC News documentary about white attitudes towards race in the American South and the tensions of life in the Mississippi Delta during the Civil Rights struggle.  The film outraged some Southern viewers, in part, because of a candid and unforgettable scene featuring Booker Wright, a local African-American waiter in Greenwood, MS.  Wright, who worked at a local “whites only” restaurant, went on national television to deliver a stunning and heartfelt monologue about his true feelings about serving the white community, and about his aspirations for his children, who he hoped would grow up free from the prejudice he faced.  The repercussions for Booker Wright’s courageous candidness were extreme at the time apparently. He spoke about despite being hurt and disrespected by white customers he would maintain a smile on his face. He was later pistol-whipped by a white police officer. And in 1973, Wright was killed in an altercation with a customer at his own restaurant, Booker's Place. Almost fifty years after Booker Wright’s television appearance, his granddaughter Yvette Johnson, and Frank De Felitta’s son, director Raymond De Felitta, journey into the Mississippi Delta in search of answers: Who exactly was Booker Wright?  What was the mystery surrounding his courageous life and untimely murder? And what role did this 1965 NBC News documentary play in his fate? While Booker Wright’s name does not appear in history books, Finding Booker’s Place demonstrates that his legacy continues to inspire, many decades later. Rest in power Mr. Wright.

Tags Black History 365
Black History 365 | # 257 Dorothy Dandridge →

Latest Posts

Featured
Aug 10, 2025
Black History 365 | # 258 Booker Wright
Aug 10, 2025
Aug 10, 2025
Aug 9, 2025
Black History 365 | # 257 Dorothy Dandridge
Aug 9, 2025
Aug 9, 2025
Aug 7, 2025
Black History 365 | # 256 Bert Williams
Aug 7, 2025
Aug 7, 2025
Aug 6, 2025
Black History 365 | # 255 Victoria Santa Cruz
Aug 6, 2025
Aug 6, 2025
Aug 5, 2025
Black History 365 | # 254 Heman Bekele
Aug 5, 2025
Aug 5, 2025
Aug 4, 2025
Black History 365 | # 253 Beverly Buchanan
Aug 4, 2025
Aug 4, 2025
Aug 1, 2025
Black History 365 | # 252 Bill Nunn Jr.
Aug 1, 2025
Aug 1, 2025
Jul 31, 2025
Black History 365 | # 251 Paul Revere Williams
Jul 31, 2025
Jul 31, 2025
Jul 30, 2025
Black History 365 | # 250 The Black Seminoles
Jul 30, 2025
Jul 30, 2025
Jul 29, 2025
Black History 365 | # 249 The History of Denim Jeans & Indigo Dye
Jul 29, 2025
Jul 29, 2025