JOHNSON, Chester L. 1951-

PERSONAL: Born March 30, 1951, in Jackson, TN; son of Fred Johnson (a minister) and Bebee Jones-Johnson (a registered nurse); married Shirley Mormen (divorced); children: Chester, Shanna A. Education: California State University, Hayward, B.A. (sociology); attended Los Angeles SouthWest College, 1976; Don Martin School of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences, A.A., 1971. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Baptist. Hobbies and other interests: Writing, photography.

ADDRESSES: Home—440 29th St., Richmond, CA 94804. Offıce—C. Johnson Enterprises Ltd.com, 440 29th St., Richmond, CA 94804. Agent—The Associates, 8961 Sunset Blvd., Suite B., Los Angeles, CA 90069. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Entrepreneur, broadcaster, and writer. CEO and founder, C. Johnson Enterprises Ltd.com (business consultants), Richmond, CA, 1995—; Naval Aviation Depot, Alameda, CA, security supervisor, 1985-95; KCMO/KC95 FM Radio, Fairway, KS, master control operator, announcer, and writer, 1983-85; KACE FM Radio, Los Angeles, CA, announcer/operator, 1977-82; KCMJ Radio (CBS 1010), Palm Springs, CA, announcer/operator and music director, 1974-77. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps.

AWARDS, HONORS: Gold records from Stax Records/KPOP/KPIP FM Radio, and Polydor Records/KPOP/KPIP FM Radio, both 1973, both for music direction.

WRITINGS:

Wisdom (poetry), self-published, 1998.

(And editor) White Man Brown, a Failure of the American Dream (noir fiction), Xlibris Corp., 2001.

Also author of television script for Banachek series, produced 1973.

WORK IN PROGRESS: White Man Brown, the Hip-Hop Godfather; research on the analysis of organizational programs.

SIDELIGHTS: Chester L. Johnson told CA: "At a young age, I began picking up the books with lurid covers that I found scattered around my brother's bedroom. Science fiction, mystery and detective novels—I soon devoured them all, but even as a youngster, I wondered: Why aren't any of these characters black like me? Years later, I discovered there were a handful of African-American noir writers from the '40s and '50s known as the 'old school' of black detective fiction. I read some Chester Himes and picked up In the Heat of the Night, whose character Virgil Tibbs is black, even though the author wasn't. But other than that, there weren't any, and I didn't understand why. I thought the field could use some people of color. So I decided to one day write my own. What I'm doing has a historical root that goes all the way back to the Harlem Renaissance writers of the 1930s—more known for poetry and lofty prose than hard-boiled fiction—represented by Rudolph Fisher, who penned the 1932 classic The Conjure-Man Dies, the first detective novel, to my knowledge, to feature a black protagonist.

"There's no clear rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly. Sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out. Once you get the idea of writing, you realize the object is to convey everything, every sensation, feeling, sight, place, and emotion to the reader. My experience as an announcer in radio helped me a great deal in this area. We're all fascinated with evil and wrongdoing and seeing people brought to justice, but for African Americans that sense of seeing wrongs righted is very powerful because, historically, we haven't always seen that happen in our lives. Where else can I tell all these tales of political corruption and racial animus but in the mystery novel?

"When I start a book, whether it's poetry and lofty prose or a suspense novel such as White Man Brown, I attempt to create a mood, to write one true sentence and go from there. It's easy then, because there's always one true sentence that I know, or have seen, or have heard someone say. If I start writing elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I find that I need to stop the nonsense, toss it out, and start over again with the very first declarative sentence I've written. This seems to always work for me."