For the past seven months, I have been traveling throughout Tangipahoa and St. Helena Parishes, Louisiana collecting photographs of African American people to be a part of the Images of America Series. I collected military, school, church, civic and social organizations, educators, farmers, elected officials and other pictures for the upcoming book. I couldn't have done it without the help of Glyniss Vernon Gordon, Dr. Kingsley Blaine Garrison, Mr. Lawerence Spears and his wife Arizona "Tat" Earnest Spears, Shan Gordon, Mrs. Ella Mae Badon, Earl and Vera Wheeler, Edwin Temple, Mrs. Grace Belvins Walker Perry, Annie Lee Hurst, Leonard Smith, and Montreal Harrell constant support. Certainly I want to thank my grandchildren for assisting me. There were days when everything seem so overwhelming and difficult, but I had to move forward to finish the book. I want to thank Melody Ricketts for offering her help and encouraging me.  |
| The Johnson Family Courtesy of Myrtis Cook |
The publishing company emailed me last week to inform me that the book will be available this coming December. The book is rich with 214 images and text. I learned so much about the people of this parish and their compelling stories and I'm excited to share these stories with the world. Many of their stories are undocumented and not written in the history books. The community narratives and images will help give scholars, researchers, and writers a broader perspective about African Americans people of the two Louisiana Florida Parishes. Each photograph in the nine chapters represents the communities the unsung trailblazers call home. I looked at so many amazing photographs inside of shoe boxes, albums, and dresser drawers. Some images that were taken around the late 1800s to early 1900s should be displayed in museums and preserved in archival repositories.
These photographs can change how we see ourselves. The images frozen moments in time so that we can reflect upon today. We can learn a great deal about the past from the pictures. After Arcadia Publishing Company approved the images and quality, there are many images that wasn't selected and I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with the others. The promotional team is working on the promotional release for the upcoming book and I will post it on all my social media sites.
There is a sense of pride I have just knowing that the people and trailblazers have been written in the Arcadia Publishing and History Press Collection. Last but certainly not least, I want to acknowledge Dr. Howard Nicholls for inspiring and suggesting that I publish this book.
