The Homegoing of Howard Lee Johnson

Tales from Dave's Bar, Book Iii

This is the story of a young black man, Howard Lee Johnson, who was born to unwed parents in Selma, Alabama during the turbulent racial upheaval of the mid-sixties. His father, a young civil rights worker sent to Alabama to instruct blacks in voter registration, impregnated Howard Lees teenage mother and vanished before he was born. His mother, aunt and grandmother raised him in a God-fearing manner with all the love they could muster, but it wasnt enough. He agonized over why his father abandoned him, and the older he got, the angrier he became. When his mother makes a deathbed revelation of his fathers identity and whereabouts, the twenty-year-old Howard Lee flees Selma, Alabama and journeys to Atlanta. He finds the now-defrocked pastor sitting in the Fulton County Jail. After a heart to heart talk, he forgives his father but doesnt want a relationship with him. With no other plans, Howard Lee decides to remain in the City Too Busy to Hate. He soon falls in love and marries a Christian girl named Charlotte. During the next ten years they have two wonderful kids, and he lives the life of Rileyuntil he begins an affair with Naomi, a bartender and former prostitute, and Charlotte kicks him out. For the first time in his life, Howard Lee must face his future, and himself, alone. The Homegoing of Howard Lee Johnson is the third book in the series, Tales From Daves Bar.