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To view the book on Amazon, click here.
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1. How did you start writing?
I am from Portland, Oregon. My mother, Willie Mae Hart aka Sister B, is from Vicksburg, Mississippi....the heartbeat of the Western Confederacy during the Civil War. I first visited Vicksburg in 1969 while on a brief leave from the U.S. Air Force. I was stationed at Keesler, AFB in Biloxi, MS. My visit with relatives was interesting and fun, but that was about it. The next opportunity I had to visit Vicksburg was in 2004 with my mother. That second visit was a totally different experience for me...a type of epiphany, if you will. Why was that? Because I now saw Vicksburg and the South through the eyes of my mother, and I cried!
A few years later, I asked my mother, who lived to reach 102, how she ended up coming to Portland where she spent the rest of her life. Her story fascinated me, and I made up my mind that her story needed to be told to the public. That started me on my road to writing.
2. Tell us about your writing process. How do you start and finish a book?
I always considered myself a decent writer. My professional career was in the sale of financial and retirement plan services to employer groups. Much of my time was then spent in writing sales proposals and development of sales presentations for various audiences. As I began to undertake the task of putting my mother's story down in words, I took a class in Creative Writing from one of our local community colleges. I then embarked on intense research into the history of the times during my mother's lifetime. It took me several years to finish the book. The final edition was completed and published in November, 2019.
3. Let's discuss your book Sister B. Can you give us a short synopsis for those that are unaware?
Sister B, a family-given moniker for Willie Mae Hart (nee Young), is the story of a young, ambitious African American female who was determined to not raise a son in the brutal, destructive and deadly racism of the South. More blacks were lynched in Mississippi than in any other state. Temporarily leaving her four-year old son in the loving care of her mother, Sister B left Mississippi for California to make way for a better life for herself and family. A close childhood friend, who lived and worked in Oregon, invited Sister B to visit. In 1939 while on the train from Southern California to Southern Oregon, Sister B crossed paths with a Japanese gentleman, a true event, who was taking a ton of pictures of the coastal communities as the train moved northward. Although she thought it odd that he would take so many photographs, she put it out of mind and thought no more of it...that is until 1941 when Pearl Harbor and WWII broke out. The book relates her story and that of the Japanese photographer along with their families, the effects of WWII, the events that followed the war and their respective paths of life.
4. The book is a historical fiction. Was Sister B (aka Willie Mae) a real person?
Yes! Born April 4, 1915, died June 24, 2017 at age 102. Feel free to conduct a google search for "Willie Mae Hart-Portland, Oregon." You'll find plenty of articles about her.
5. What in the book is fact and what is fiction?
Sister B and her close, personal friends were real people. The historical events mentioned in the book are true as evidenced by the dates, places and references given. Some of the Japanese characters are fictional, such as Akio Hashimoto and his family, but they are loosely based on real-life people, families and events that have been written about during those war years.
6. The theme of the book is the negative attitudes and brutal treatment of Blacks and Asians at the time. Why is this an important topic for you?
This should be an important topic for everyone. Racism is still the number one social problem in America. "Covad 'hate crimes' against Asian Americans on rise" BBC news headline 05/21/2021. "There were 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents, mostly against women, in past year" NBC news headline-Asian America-03/16/2021. "George Floyd: Timeline of Black deaths and protests" BBC news headline 04/22/2021. And I could go on and on and on. This seemingly primal hatred of people of color by so many among the white population continues to dominate headlines because of its reality in our society. When I saw symbols of racism such as the Confederate flag and the Nazi swastika paraded proudly by the thousand-strong mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on 01/06/2021, and then given tacit support by the out-going President of the United States and those defending him, I wondered if we are slipping back into a very dark age of our history. The theme of the book, Sister B, is so relevant today because she represents the kind of "fight" all of us must have to combat and defeat the racists and their racism that continues to rear its ugly head. This fight must continue at the ballot box, in our speeches, in our day-to-day activities, in our political policies and discourse, and in our literature.
Maybe James Baldwin said it best: "I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."—The Fire Next Time,1963.
7. What message do you want your readers to walk away with?
To appreciate the life and achievements of Sister B realizing she is a metaphor for the efforts of all women of color, not visible on the national stage, that made great progress to find, define and defend their "identity" within an American society that was so completely against them. And, hopefully, inspire all women of the current and future generations to not let anyone, or anything, make them a slave.
8. What's next for you?
Continue to promote my second book, Tales From The Millinery Shop ~ With A Twist, which pays homage to my paternal grandparents....a married couple from New York that dared to be different at a time when it could cost them their lives. They lived in the era of Mark Twain's "Gilded Age." Grandfather was African American and trained thoroughbred race horses for a living. Grandmother was Caucasian from Germany and, in the book, worked as a milliner in a ladies hat shop in upstate New York. Their story, interwoven with other stories from ladies who work at the millinery shop, is a fascinating read with a look back at history. I am also contemplating a sequel to Sister B that would be based on her early childhood life and the family members that had a great influence on her growing up.
9. In honor of Black History Month, what historical figure do you feel most made a difference in the equality of African Americans and why?
Martin Luther King, Jr because he challenged the very conscience of white America to live up to the true meaning of it's creed set forth in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
10. What's your definition of racism?
Racism is an attitude of the mind whereby one racial group, Caucsians for example, believe they are superior to all other racial groups which are inferior such as Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, etc. At its essence, racism is not an emotion. It has little to do with love or hate, like or dislike. It is not dependent upon any economic status or political affiliation. It is analogous to an animal pet owner's attitude toward its animal pet. A person owning a dog may love and care immensely for the dog and may even allow the dog to sleep next to the owner in the same bed. But let it never be forgotten, by virtue of what it is...it is a dog and is not on the same existence level as the human owner. In our nation's history, black slaves were considered "chattel" property....property not attached to real estate, that is inferior to and under the ownership of a white superior person. The Civil War did away with the ownership aspect, but the superior-to-inferior attitude based on skin color prevails to this very day.
11. Tell me your life story in one sentence.
I'm a male who was extremely fortunate to find a steady and solid soul mate, my wife of over 50 years, that helped me to become a man!
12. If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?
I'm already there....the Puget Sound region of Western Washington State. After serving in the military and having spent time in most areas of our country including the East, the Great Lakes region, the South and Southwest, and California, the Pacific Northwest, especially Western Washington, is the best. Surrounded by beautiful mountains to the east and west, with wonderful lakes, bays and rivers interspersed here and there, with relatively moderate weather and the grand Pacific Ocean nearby, there is no other place on earth I would want to live but right here. This is home!
