James Alan McPherson

When my father died, in late December 1961, I had just returned to Sa­vannah from Morris Brown College in Atlanta. In my own mind, my father had died many years before. I attended the funeral, but grew angry when the Methodist minister who conducted the services said, “We all knew Mac, and we all know he’s better off where he is now.”

I did not attend the burial.

Moving Pictures

In California, many years ago, I saw a Japanese film called Sansho the Bailiff. The film is about Japan during its Middle Ages, when slavery existed as an institution. It tells the story of a family.