The Life Chronicler
Project

My visit to Atlanta was a fruitful one. I interviewed Joseph, a second house guest at the Airbnb. He is an amazing guy who may have leads for me when I get to Memphis. I also met a minister and got his point of view on the future of the country given how divided we seem to be. He said that he would ask someone who he thought had a great story if he wanted to be interviewed.

I did the customary city walking and got all the photos I need. One of my pictures came from Morehouse College, the Historically Black College and University. While there, I engaged with two students, one female, one male, in a thirty-minute discussion about the country’s future. I asked them to put a value on the severity of our divisiveness with 1 being virtually non-existent and 10 being a replay of the 1840s and 1850s. Their verdicts were 8 and 9. Both felt that increased social unrest is on the horizon.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to engage the main newspaper in Atlanta by playing up my success in Richmond, Virginia. I am not going to give up on that as I continue my journey. Finally, I found Joseph to be such a remarkable man that I, for the first time in my life, gave a full accounting of my story. It lasted 90 minutes and, like other interviewees, I found it cathartic.