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My Father Said Yes
A White Pastor in Little Rock School Integration
Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
My Father Said Yes is the untold story of the Reverend Dunbar Ogden, who became the pro-integration leader in Little Rock's white community. He responded to a call for support from Daisy Bates, co-owner of the town's black newspaper. Both faced fierce opposition from within as well as from outside. Reverend Ogden lost his church and Daisy Bates lost her newspaper.
This memoir is also a moving father-son story. In this frank account, the author discusses the depression his father battled for most of his life, as well as the family tragedy of his brother's suicide.
Dunbar H. Ogden is Professor Emeritus of Dramatic Art at the University of California, Berkeley where, since 2000, he has taught a freshman seminar based on the events in this book.
My Father Said Yes is a good read, interesting throughout, and an important reminder of the shameful miseries and insults inflicted upon African-Americans prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
--Eric Anshutz, Rossmoor News
A remarkable book [which dramatizes] the power of black-white partnership.
--Archbishop Desmond Tutu