Tim Shea will discuss the life of Willie Harris (1941-2021), the subject of his book Big Man: An Incredible Journey from Mississippi to Hollywood with former Branford Tax Collector Roberta Gill-Brooks. Willie Harris was raised as a sharecropper picking cotton on a plantation in Mississippi in the 1950s, went on to play Division I college basketball, serve in the U.S. Air Force, and become one of the leaders of the Black Stuntmen’s Association in the 1970s, waging a battle against racism in Hollywood that changed the film industry. He and his fellow warriors received the NAACP Image Award, were commended by the United States Congress, and their story is told in the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. That’s a very inspiring life for someone whose greatest prospect as a young boy was to drive a tractor.
Willie’s story, and those of so many of his friends and family, illuminate the daily challenges and roadblocks faced by those who grew up starting at the bottom of the American racial caste system in the second half of the twentieth century.
This a story about the American Dream and the many ways that forces in American society have conspired to crush that dream for many of its citizens. It is also a story about a man who fought with determination and purpose, refusing to be denied a taste of the sweet nectar of true freedom.
For more information, visit the book’s website.
About Tim Shea
Tim Shea is a lifelong Branford resident. He graduated from Branford High school in 1983, and then from Providence College in 1987 with a degree in English. He worked for four years as a newspaper reporter in Hamden and North Haven, CT, and since 1993 he has held a variety of posts at Yale University. Shea was inspired to document Willie’s story—as well as those of many people who endured the same conditions—after hearing him speak on National Public Radio in 2016.
Registration is required to attend this IN PERSON event.
