Author
Author
Wiggins remarkable “Beyond Black and White” covers a vast canvas that includes identity, family, jazz, friendships, love and loss set in the political and cultural turmoil of the 1960s.
In high school, alienation set in early. Gerard struggled with academics and had little or no interest in sports or rock music. Friends were hard to come by. The only passion in his young life was jazz.
Accompanying his father on business trips to Boston in search of jazz LPs, he met an older and wiser Black man who showed interest in the boy from rural New Hampshire. Rodney understood what Gerard’s high school contemporaries didn’t.
Once out of high school, Gerard left for Boston with high expectations. Across the street from his trade school, White and naive Gerard met Black and sophisticated Bobby. Within days, Bobby began tutoring Gerard in modern jazz and their relationship blossomed into an intense friendship, unaffected by the racial tensions of the mid 60s.
Becoming a part of Bobby’s social group, Gerard heard about a part of American history left out of most history books—the struggle of Blacks for equality. He listened and learned, but mostly he was grateful for the camaraderie and the constant flow of jazz.
1968 began with the Tet offensive in Vietnam, Prague Spring, and student unrest in Paris. However it was Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination that shook Gerard’s world to the core. How could he live with three Black men after the death of the Prince of Peace? The roommates would weather the crisis unaware that another tragedy was about to strike—this one, closer to home
For decades, I’ve wanted to tell my story but had to wait for the right time and space. One winter in India, on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luthur King Junior’s assassination, I reflected on that heartbreaking day. The time had come to write about love, race and jazz in the 60’s.
For a child of the 60s, political assassinations, race riots and a deepening involvement in the Vietnam war was the norm. My tale weaves through these issues from the perspective of a rural White boy making friends with hip Black urbanites. Despite our contrasting backgrounds, we were able to communicate from day one. Hearing their Black perspective on America, I quickly started to question the status quo. Fate had afforded me a chance to expand beyond my own limits to see a world previously hidden, but was in plain sight. My friends spoke without hesitation regarding the effect of racism on them and their community. I kept quiet and listened.
For two years, we were close, even lived together. But when the country was on the brink of self-destruction in 1968, unable to cope with the brutality any longer, I bid my friends a farewell and left for Europe. Having learned how to adapt to the unfamiliar, living abroad was just another stepping stone on my path. I learned more during those two short years than most people acquire in university.
