Independent Expression Radio

"As gunfire suddenly shatters the concentration of the cotton field workers, Miss Ella, carrying her infant son, wonders why her brother-in-law seems determined to destroy everything and everyone."

So begins this true-life story, when two generations ago life for southern Blacks was harsh, and they worked in greatly adverse conditions.

Terry Franklin Culpepper was born in Selma, Alabama. While a high school senior he began work as a telephone linesman in Montgomery, Alabama, one of the first black technical workers for Southern Bell Telephone Company. After a thirteen-year marriage, he raised four children alone while earning BS and MS degrees from Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Terry's grandmother, Miss Ella, knew the grinding poverty and the grueling work involved in wresting a living from the Alabama soil under an unjust social system. But she also knew the caring of a community that gave her a home and the protective structure of spiritual values.

Join us for a heartwarming discussion about a wonderful book called Miss Ella.