A new musical work commissioned by the Southern Foodways Alliance pays tribute through opera to Booker Wright, the late owner of Booker’s Place and a former waiter at Lusco’s.
The work, officially titled “Repast: An Oratorio in Honor of Mister Booker Wright of Greenwood, Mississippi,” debuted at the Southern Foodways Alliance’s symposium on Oct. 26 and was also featured on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition in a nearly eight-minute story Saturday.
Wright, a black waiter at Lusco’s in the 1960s, gained national notoriety after reciting the menu for a 1966 NBC television documentary — and speaking frankly about the pain of being insulted by white customers.
He left Lusco’s shortly after the documentary aired and focused his energies on Booker’s Place, a South Greenwood restaurant. Wright was killed in 1973 by Lloyd “Blackie” Cork, a customer Wright had kicked out of his restaurant for being disruptive.
The oratorio, composed by Nolan Gasser and with text by Kevin Young, pulls from Wright’s comments to the NBC film crew, in which he complained about the occasionally rough, rude and disrespectful treatment he’d receive from white customers.
“Some people nice, some is not,” Wright said on camera in the NBC documentary, in words that were included in the musical piece. “Some call me Booker. Some call me John. Some call me Jim. Some call me n*****.
“All that hurt, but you have to smile,” Wright said.
The Southern Foodways Alliance, a nonprofit group based at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture in Oxford, commissioned the piece to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed racial segregation in public accommodations, including restaurants.
Wright’s story was featured in a 2012 episode of NBC’s “Dateline” newsmagazine as well as a feature-length documentary, “Booker’s Place,” that was released earlier the same year.
nContact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
