BLACK, WHITE, COLORED

A tribute to a larger-than-life father that sheds light on race, identity, and American history.

Mother and daughter Lauretta Malloy Noble and LeeAnét Noble honor the life of Lauretta’s father, Lawrence Edward Malloy Sr., a man who “embraced his Blackness as a badge of honor” and regaled his daughter, and most people he encountered, with stories of his family’s life in Laurinburg, North Carolina. After his death, the Nobles set out to learn more about the family and the town that loomed so large in Malloy’s life. Their work is at once personal and political: “Stories about towns like Laurinburg fill in the deliberate gaps in Black history. They live in between the lines and references, taking space solely in the hearts and minds of our elders.” The Malloy family experience is interwoven with aspects of U.S. history that many Americans would prefer to ignore, including the horrific violence perpetrated by the Red Shirts (a white supremacist organization) and systemic efforts to eliminate political and economic gains made during Reconstruction. The Nobles balance this history with accounts of the resilience of their family and other Laurinburg community members, “the people who triumphed amid chaos, who found ways to fight through generations by planting seeds that would continue to grow after they passed away. Now, more than ever before, we need to see a path to reinvent, to persevere, and to heal.” Such perseverance is apparent in the 1904 founding of the Laurinburg Institute, “the first Black boarding school in the United States” that “was responsible for the education of jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie, the families of director Spike Lee and actor Danny Glover,” among others. The historical context, which includes quotations from general interest websites, can be stilted, but the prose shines brightly in the more personal passages, particularly those recounting the sights and sounds of Malloy family gatherings.

A personal exploration of two centuries of family, community, and identity in the South.