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This author appeared at the 2009 festival. Please view the list of authors appearing at this year's festival or see our suggestions for similar authors below.
 Bob Ray Sanders
Calvin Littlejohn died in 1993, but his legacy to generations to come is a collection of photographs of "a racially segregated Texas community during an era of rapid change." Bob Ray Sanders' Calvin Littlejohn: Portrait of a Community in Black and White combines Littlejohn's photos of events, gatherings, and everyday life in segregated Ft. Worth with the photographer's own words and includes a foreword by Don Carleton, Executive Director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. Sanders, a vice president and metro columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, immersed himself in the project, surveying the African American community in Fort Worth seeking out people who could identify those portrayed in Littlejohn's photos. Sanders includes photos of entertainers, sports and political figures, the funerals of an infant and others, and church assemblies, along with studio portraits from times when black and white were divided into separate worlds, parallel universes residing within the same city limits. Littlejohn's own version of his vision to become a photographer was prompted by the stereotypical portrayal he saw one day of a black child eating watermelon: "I'm gonna learn this, so I can—whenever I have a chance—I'm gonna show the best side of these people that's being rejected so." Littlejohn was forced by circumstance into being a wage-earner. Even in tough economic times, being a black man made making a living even more challenging. In spite of this, Littlejohn maintained his integrity and dedicated himself to his original vision. Sanders is a 30-year veteran of the journalism world who has worked in television and radio as well as newspapers. He is on the board of multiple charitable organizations and is a member of three journalistic associations and has received several prestigious awards for his journalistic endeavors. He lives in Ft. Worth with his wife and son.
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