Blues for the Father

A music producer named Marion, who was in the South during the 1950s, loved the sound of Black musicians. However, he knows they cannot record their music, especially down South, where he lives.

He uses his profession to continue a forbidden relationship that he has carried on for 15 years, one with a Black woman. The relationship has produced an athletically gifted son who appears white. While he resides in Meridian, Mississippi, with his alcoholic wife and two sons, the music allows him to travel throughout the South and to Birmingham, Alabama, where his “other” family resides.

Marion’s Black lover, Rosa, is victimized twice in her life. A trained attorney and a woman, she was not of her time. Brilliant and talented, she championed the work of Black musicians. Most of the connections she made in selling her music were through Marion.

Marion wants to help Black people advance their careers. Since there have been some breakthroughs in the North and he has connections there, he does what he can to help. However, because of his second family in Birmingham, he loses almost all connection with his white family in Meridian, including the fact that his oldest son has become so consumed with hate that he has joined the Klan.

With the wife in Mississippi, drinking all the time, and the oldest son out spreading his hate with his friends, the youngest son becomes withdrawn. Marion is away so often that he never realizes how badly his family has disintegrated. The arguments with his wife over the years were a routine fiasco. Marion never realized it was a manifestation of what he left her with when he went in search of music.

His athletically gifted son, while appearing to be white, identifies with his African American heritage, and this causes some conflict with his father. Marion keeps telling him it will be easier to pass as “white.” His father goes to great lengths to advance his son’s career, driving him to another county to play youth baseball. His teammates cherished their star, but Aaron knew they would despise him if they were aware he was part black. It reinforces his Black identity.

The story explores the struggles within a family and the life of a man who lives a lie. Rosa knows Marion will never leave his wife, especially for a Black woman. She has loved him for fifteen years and knows it cannot reach the fruition she desires. Aaron has grown, and he is now the focus of Rosa’s life. Many Black people are moving North in search of a better life for their families. Rosa applies for a job in Washington with the government and is hired. Marion is devastated because Rosa and Aaron were the only absolute pleasures he had ever known.