There is a rumor circulating that the Charlotte Observer has snubbed Susan Wells, penname Susan Barringer Wells. Susan has written a new book, “A Game Called Salisbury.” The book is about the murder of the Lyerly Family in 1906 and the subsequent  arrest and later lynching of 3 sharecroppers. The book is also about racial attitudes in the south and the nation. There is a Charlotte connection beyond any racial aspects. The 3 prisoners were brought to Charlotte for their safety before the trial was to begin. After their return to the Rowan County jail, an angry mob, stirred up by outsiders, lynched the 3 men.

Book signings have been taking place all over the state and the Greensboro Daily News, The Asheville Citizen and Salisbury Post have written articles about Susan and the book. With the involvement of the Mecklenburg County Jail in the story and Susan’s ancestral roots going back over 250 years all around Charlotte, one would think that sufficient to warrant coverage. Is there some other reason? Is this just a unjustified rumor? Are there still remnants of racism in Charlotte? Charlotte Observer, do you have a response?

Professor George Tex Wood of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College has provided a review of “A Game Called Salisbury”, the new book by Susan Barringer Wells:

“…Faulknerian in its revelations and observations of human nature, clearly spotlighting the question of real responsibility not just for active human evil, but also for spawning its activity. Those PEOPLE in the media (not some amorphous Media) are held to account. I doubt they’ll appreciate seeing that fact bared, so I doubt we’ll see many reviews of this thorough indictment. Wells shows us that lynchings were (and are) the tip of the iceburg, the cruel result of calculated manipulation of our base human natures and our cowardliness in not confronting evil when we see it, either now or then.
While this book lacks Twain’s humor, it rivals his incisiveness.”

NEWS RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:Peter J. Glunt, Owner, Dilworth Quail Corners 704.552.5232(Dilworth) or 704.458.0455(cell)

dilworthcoffee@aol.com

TO SCHEDULE AN INTERVIEW, CONTACT:Anne Marie Holder, Spark Communications704.995.1787(direct)amholder@sparkstrategicideas.comFREE DRINKS OFFERED BY DILWORTH COFFEE’S QUAIL CORNERS LOCATIONCharlotte, N.C. (February 19, 200 - The Quail Corner’s location of Dilworth Coffee house will be supplying free drinks to customers on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. The free drinks are offered in response to reports that all company-owned Starbuck’s locations will be closed during that time for retraining its employees.”We’d hate to see anyone turned away when looking for their favorite drink,” said Peter Glunt, owner of the Quail Corners location of Dilworth Coffee. “We have a passion for great coffee and invite customers to enjoy the Dilworth Coffee experience.” All of Dilworth Coffee’s drink selection will be available for the free promotion. The store offers a wide variety of both hot and cold beverages including latte’s, chillers, cappuccinos and more. The Quail Corner’s location also offers their “Two Dollar Tuesdays” promotion good for $2 off every bag of coffee beans. In addition, a large selection of fresh, locally-made pastries and baked goods will be available for purchase. As always, the Quail Corners location provides free wireless Internet for all its customers.

This free drink offer is limited to one free drink per customer and will only be available at the Quail Corners location at 8502 Park Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28210.

ABOUT DILWORTH COFFEEEstablished in 1989, Dilworth Coffee is Charlotte’s oldest independent coffee house. Dilworth prides itself on its commitment to the highest quality coffee beans and provides a wide array of custom crafted blends, varietals and flavored coffees. All of Dilworth Coffee’s 12 Charlotte-area locations are owned by local Charlotteans with a passion for serving the area’s most discriminating coffee drinkers.

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Susan Barringer Wells has written a new book, “A Game Called Salisbury” about the murder of the Lyerly Family in Salisbury NC over a hundred years ago and the lynching of 3 suspects. The book explores the evidence and the racial undertones leading to the lynching of three black sharecroppers. Susan is a distant relative of the Lyerly family and Susan, as well as other Lyerly descendants, have disagreed about various aspects of the case and purported facts. There has been a lot of controversy about the alleged guilt of the three men who were hanged. Susan just commented that at a recent history club speech, a descendant of Deputy Pat Sloop, who attempted to defend the jail from the lynch mob,  remarked that her ancestor claimed that the guilty parties got away with murder. I would like to hear from this descendant or members of the history club.

I am getting to be a regular at Maestro Bar & Bistro, a great restaurant in Pineville NC, just south of 485 in Charlotte. My lady and I started out riding our bicycles from Park Crossing and rode around the back side of Carolina Place Mall. We ended up in Pineville and were close to the Maestro restaurant, so we decided to stop. It has been a beautiful day today in the sixties, so we sat on the restaurant porch. Pam, part of the husband and wife team waited on us and we had a good chat as well. Every time I eat there I am amazed at how good the food is. Ok, I had a burger and mixed vegetables. The burger was incredible and the vegetables are unsurpassed in taste. Even the bun that the burger was served on was delicious. Pam’s husband, the chef has won awards for his pastries, but he is an incredible all around chef. Pam tells me they are considering having music when  the weather is consistently warmer. They have a great location for outside seating and also have plenty of parking.

I highly recommend the Maestro Bar & Bistro.

Susan Barringer Wells will have a book signing at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Friendly Shopping Center in Greensboro NC on Friday, February 15, 2008, at 7:00 PM. Susan will be signing copies of her new book, “A Game Called Salisbury.” The book is a non fictitional account of the Lyerly murders that occurred over a hundred years ago in Salisbury NC. The book also reveals racial issues that pervaded the south and nation at that time. Susan Barringer Wells was born in Salisbury NC, grew up in Greensboro and has been a premier artist at the Outer Banks for many years.

To learn more about  North Carolina Click here

Sales of Susan Barringer Wells’ new book, A Game Called Salisbury are progressing well. Susan was featured in the Greensboro Daily News, I believe on Sunday, February 10, 2008. Susan has a book signing coming up at Barnes & Noble in Friendly Shopping Center in Greensboro this week. I wonder if anyone from the New York Times book review department has caught wind of Susan’s new book. If anyone out there from The New York Times, Washington Post, or anyone else would care to comment on the book, let us know.

I just read this incredible story and wanted to pass it along. Julia Maulden was an incredibly giving person and very active in Habitat for Humanity. The coffee shop adjacent to the Habitat Restore on Wendover Ave in Charlotte NC is named for her. Help continue her legacy of giving by visiting Julia’s Coffee Shop and the Habitat Restore. It is a great way to help yourself while helping others. The following is taken directly from the coffee shop website:

“Julia’s Coffee Shop is named after one of Charlotte’s pioneering public servants, Julia Maulden. As the first volunteer executive director, she helped get Habitat for Humanity started in Charlotte. She not only worked on the first Charlotte Habitat home, she also brought Jimmy Carter to the Optimist Park Neighborhood for a fourteen house Build-a-Thon.

Julia grew up poor in the segregated South, borrowing and working her way through Greensboro Women’s College during the Depression. That experience, combined with her religious beliefs shaped the course of her life. She said, “You can’t just sit around loving your neighbor abstractly; you have to get out and do something for him.”

Her public service began in Kannapolis with the local Girl Scout movement where she helped to build the Girl Scout camp that still bears her name–Camp Julia. In 1945 she was named Kannapolis’ woman of the year.

In 1960 she moved to Davidson, North Carolina with her family where she became active in the school system for her kids. Her involvement led to her eventual membership in the Charlotte Mecklenburg school board, which lasted from 1966-1974. This time proved to be an extremely turbulent period, when people were openly at odds over the desegregation of schools. With her firm beliefs, she became a strong advocate for integration, despite the risk and ridicule it involved. “Her innate intelligence helped her see the world in broader terms than most people around her,” said her Reverend, Will Terry. Julia’s determination to fight for what she knew was right earned her Charlotte’s Woman of the Year in 1973.

At the age of sixty she resigned from the school board and spent the next eighteen months in the Peace Corps teaching children in the African Nation of Zaire in a very challenging environment. When she returned, she spent the next chapter of her life bringing her former students to the US and paying their way through prominent schools such as Columbia University and Davidson College.

In 1991 she told the Charlotte Observer’s Tom Bradbury that to ask yourself, “Am I better off,” is the wrong question. “Are we better off? is the question.” Because of Julia, we know that the answer to that question is “Yes.””

Visit Julia’s Coffee Shop website at:

 http://www.juliascoffee.org/main.html