Reposted by Barrelhouse
My essay “Junked: The Life, Death, and Legacy of the Most Important Television Show You’ve Never Seen” is up on @barrelhouse.bsky.social. I’m very proud of this one.
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![TR: I always say that if Frank’s Place had stayed on for say six years, five years, race relations in America would be different. Not necessarily better, but different. I think culturally there would be a wider acceptance of the history, the hidden history that now is popping up. I think there would have been more pride kept within the culture of Black America. Resurfacing I would say is a better word. I come from a completely segregated community. I never even spoke socially to a white person until I was a freshman in college. And Colortown, as it was called by the people in Norfolk [Virginia]. White folks. We call it home. They call it Colortown. It was an incredible place to grow up. There were seven movie theaters in walking distance of my house. Everybody I knew, Black, who had a shop, were the head of the shop. The drug store was run by Black folks or owned by them—some had two or three drugstores. The cafes. The bars. It was such a rich Black environment. All my heroes and the heroes that I would hear about, like Lena Horne, Count Basie, they used to come through Norfolk and perform. And of course they couldn't stay in hotels, so they stayed in these apartments. Stars would come through. They had the midnight ramble. I saw Moms Mably, Pigmeat Markham. So, my world was very segregated, not by our choice but by the system. But the entertainment, the visuals that we saw, were so powerful.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qcgmjzw4ty77w5zk46mvg25x/bafkreiac2wkig7wweplc2clx5yswyx33t2gmqe5wpdp5iohsh5ti2w5lyq)
