Follows Pulitzer Prize nominee Claudia Johnson's nineteen year quest to penetrate the mysterious silence surrounding the story of Ruby McCollum, the educated wife of numbers racketeer 'Bolita' Sam and the richest African American woman in Live Oak, Florida, sentenced to the electric chair for the 1952 murder of her white doctor and alleged lover, LeRoy Adams. Ruby was never allowed to tell her story, on the stand or to reporters, so no one, including Zora Neale Hurston, who covered the notoriously unfair trial, could say why Ruby did it. She didn't, as Johnson comes to believe when two courageous African Americans risk everything and break the long silence imposed by Live Oak's corrupt white power structure.
Head south of the border for a conversation about Mexican food with Claudia Johnson of Grand Hacienda restaurants. She discusses global influences on Mexican cuisine and how the minor Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo became such a big deal in the United States.
Claudia Johnson will tell you she currently has 27 furry, noodle-shaped babies and she can tell you the names and stories of each and every one of them.
Amid the rising number of book challenges and censorship efforts across the country, free speech advocate and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Claudia Johnson writes, The most important thing I can say to inspire others to fight book banning is show up. And speak out. Because the answer to less speech is more.