Pegasus: The White Man. The Red Horse. The Black Boy. (en Inglés)
Reseña del libro "Pegasus: The White Man. The Red Horse. The Black Boy. (en Inglés)"
Autobiographical. Historical. Enigmatical. How a young black boy helped change America. Pegasus is a firsthand account of a young black boy who becomes a thirteen-year old Mobilgas filling station attendant in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1954. The book describes the amazing challenges and opportunities provided by the station's courageous white proprietors, a father and son, who basically became the boy's surrogate grandfather and father. It is an autobiographical journey of a life before, during and after the 1957 Little Rock Integration Crisis. The filling station is the unusual setting that is the center of the boy's universe. Pegasus describes how he got there, what he did there and what came afterward. It also explains how the book got its name, while the subtitle: The White Man, The Red Horse, The Black Boy is self-explanatory. It describes the interesting mix of cars, characters and circumstances the young attendant encountered daily at the filling station. This book shares with readers a unique perspective of troubled times in, according to license plates at the time, the "Land of Opportunity". This book is the personal story of a Negro kid growing up in the turbulent South, living reality, recognizing the need for change and hoping to help facilitate it. This narrative illustrates the passion, both love and hate, exhibited on both sides of the color line. The color divide was shaped by social mores, discrimination and history. This book describes people, black and white, who touched his life, gave him encouragement, enlightenment and balance, and helped him understand the racial status quo. It also describes those who gave him pause, shock and fear. The book has 39 chapters, including "1950s Filling Station Facts". Some of the book's interesting characters and their personae include: Urinating Man - Forbidden Toilets, Carl Tullos - Immoral Hustler, Gary St. John - Blue-eyed Soul Brother, Casket Man - Impersonating a Nigger, Professor Townsend - Fantasy Lady, Miss Fairlane - aka Marilyn Monroe, Vernon Walker - The Great Pretender, Reverend Cotton, Three Cool White Cats and many incarnations of Jim Crow. The author's experiences cover a wide range of emotion and passion during his first 21 years of life, including sex, love, violence, humility, humanity and racism. He interfaced with, among others, Ferrell Faubus (son of Governor Orval E. Faubus), Daisy Bates, the Negro Nine, Fats Domino and Jimmy Reed.
