I've been writing columns in Houston gay newspapers since 1973, as many of you know. I have written many times about my service for the National Security Agency. (I wore a Navy uniform. But we, in Sidi Yahia, Morocco, and later in Rota, Spain, were really NSA employees.) During most of those three years, I had a male lover, Frank, who lives far away but whom I talk with to this day. And in those days, the Navy, and especially the NSA, gave a rat's ass about one's sexuality. Their concern was that you were trustworthy, talented and did your job. Frank and I did. We both moved upward in the pecking order faster than most others.
I've written about the time before that, before the Navy/NSA, about my times as a disc jockey and radio newscaster in Mississippi in the 60's prior to the Navy and then after the Navy. And later here in Houston on KENR and KULF.
I've written about, prior to that, how I believe I went to elementary school in Casper, Wyoming, with ex-VP Dick Cheney and how he was a bully even way back then.
And I've written about the time I was the voice of the radio commercials for Charles Evers that aired throughout the state when he ran for governor of Mississippi. We received about a third of the statewide vote. Unheard of at that time for a black man running for governor of Mississippi.
And I've written frequently about my favorite subject, the fact that I am gay.
One might be forgiven for thinking I was Forrest Gump.
Those above subjects, and many more (Richard Nixon once shook my hand and I once threw up on the boots of rock n' roller Jerry Lee Lewis at the Moose Lodge in Greenwood, Mississippi) will be further explored in this on-line column over the next months. And I'll have photos. (But not of Jerry Lee Lewis and my releasing my precious bodily fluids. No photos were taken.)
But back to Charles Evers. He is the brother of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who lived about eight blocks away from my mother, father, sister Ann and myself. Medger was murdered in his front yard by a white supremist who drove a white station wagon with a large CB antenna sticking up. I saw it frequently in our area of Jackson. (The north side of Northside Drive was white, the south side was black.)
From the Clarion-Ledger, the surviving daily newspaper of Jackson, once a very racist newspaper but now progressive, I learned this morning that the house where Medger lost his life now has an official Mississippi state marker. And here is a picture of the marker and Medgar's widow and others that occurred when the marker was erected.
I've written about the time before that, before the Navy/NSA, about my times as a disc jockey and radio newscaster in Mississippi in the 60's prior to the Navy and then after the Navy. And later here in Houston on KENR and KULF.
I've written about, prior to that, how I believe I went to elementary school in Casper, Wyoming, with ex-VP Dick Cheney and how he was a bully even way back then.
And I've written about the time I was the voice of the radio commercials for Charles Evers that aired throughout the state when he ran for governor of Mississippi. We received about a third of the statewide vote. Unheard of at that time for a black man running for governor of Mississippi.
And I've written frequently about my favorite subject, the fact that I am gay.
One might be forgiven for thinking I was Forrest Gump.
Those above subjects, and many more (Richard Nixon once shook my hand and I once threw up on the boots of rock n' roller Jerry Lee Lewis at the Moose Lodge in Greenwood, Mississippi) will be further explored in this on-line column over the next months. And I'll have photos. (But not of Jerry Lee Lewis and my releasing my precious bodily fluids. No photos were taken.)
But back to Charles Evers. He is the brother of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who lived about eight blocks away from my mother, father, sister Ann and myself. Medger was murdered in his front yard by a white supremist who drove a white station wagon with a large CB antenna sticking up. I saw it frequently in our area of Jackson. (The north side of Northside Drive was white, the south side was black.)
From the Clarion-Ledger, the surviving daily newspaper of Jackson, once a very racist newspaper but now progressive, I learned this morning that the house where Medger lost his life now has an official Mississippi state marker. And here is a picture of the marker and Medgar's widow and others that occurred when the marker was erected.
