David Played a Harp

Download or read book David Played a Harp written by Ralph W. Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of a college town, Davidson, NC, told in autobiography by an African-American barber who lived a 20th century of unparalleled change. Ralph Johnson, 96, caught in the poverty-ridden rule of Jim Crow customs, tells of struggles against disadvantage, unbelievable today, to get ahead. Of frugal, intense personal discipline, correspondence courses, self-schooling and hard work. As he moved into the post world war II years and his efforts began to find some success -- his 7-chair shop was one of the largest in the south -- he suddenly became the 1967 target of desegregation picketers who demanded he sacrifice his business to try to settle the centuries old curse of segregation. After a difficult, divisive struggle of a community with itself, Mr. Johnson's peacefully became the first publicly integrated barber shop anyone knew of in the South if not the nation and its demise followed shortly thereafter. Trying to understand what happened to him and why is a very personal puzzle in this eloquent, gripping life story as well as a life changing experience for any serious reader.