The Homegoing of Howard Lee Johnson

About the Book

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 Lee’s 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 wasn’t 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 father’s 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 doesn’t 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 Riley—until 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 Dave’s Bar.

About the Author

Fred “Max” Roberts was born the youngest of three in Rowland, North Carolina, and attended the local public school. His father, a church deacon, and his strong-minded mother made sure their children learned to read and write. But young Fred did more than that—he learned to love writing. When Fred isn’t working on another book, he loves traveling, music, art and photography. The Homegoing of Howard Lee Johnson is Fred’s third book in the series Tales From Dave’s Bar. His first book, The Delivery Man, and second book, You Can Go Home Again, are the prequels.