the jitney man

About the Book

Since man had been placed on Earth’s surface he has had to struggle to better his conditions and to survive. Some accept their fate, others cry, and a chosen few fight to make right that which they perceive as wrong. Between 1870 and 1910 most of the black people in the United States were illiterate and systematically deprived of an education. It is against this background that Moses Leroy Davis, the son of a black Mississippi share cropper was provoked into actions to alleviate the conditions of his people by extripating ignorances and substituting the obsolete status quo with actions superseding somnolence.

Throughout this difficult and seemingly impossible task, his wealthy, aristocratic white friend Johnathan (Little John) Smith assisted him in overcoming his adversaries.

About the Author

S. Earl Wilson, III son of Samuel The Second with his niece Arlynnette Hamm. He was born and raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where he completed high school at Springfield Consolidated High School in 1950. Graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1955. Was the first Black person or African-American to get a Master’s degree in science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1970. He has taught science both in Mississippi and Rockland County, New York for a combined total of forty years. An ex-athlete himself, he captained both his high school’s football and basketball teams. He then earned four letters in football at Morehouse College and played one year of semi-professional football with the Fort Huachuca Arizona Raiders while in the military. During his forty years of reaching science, he has also coached the following sports: baseball (2 years), football (10 years), basketball (32 years), tennis (15 years), girls fast pitch softball (15 years), wrestling (1 year), track (5 years), soccer (2 years), and volleyball (1 year). Has won numerous championships and honors such as “Coach of the Year” more that once. He has also been associated with hockey and lacrosse. He has sixty hours above the Master’s degree earned at the University of Southern Mississippi, Tuskegee University, Jackson State University, Tougaloo College, Cannius College, The College of Saint Rose, North Carolina Central University, and the University of Wyoming. In 2001 he was called out of retirement to coach the Collins High School boys’ basketball team of Collins, Mississippi to a 15-10 record, and one first place tournament trophy. He attributes these tireless working habits as “taking after his daddy.”