Race Records

Once upon a time in 1920's Georgia, a singer named Mamie fell in love with a farmer named Silas. She was black and dreaming of a career on stage. He was white and married with a whole mess of kids counting on him. They loved anyway. It was against the law to marry, and frowned upon to even be seen together, so they hid their affair. Just when they thought their world couldn't get any more complicated, along came a baby. That baby was my grandmother. Race Records was the term used for phonograph records made by and marketed to African Americans in the 1920's and 30's. The thought was to segregate music, just like we segregated people. But music flows as it will, and people love as they do. Mamie and Silas met during this time of segregation and so many things divided them--color, family obligations, distance--but one thing held them together, love. Race Records is the story of that love, how it has affected my family, and how each of us have tried to come to terms with our own race records.