MISSISSIPI SOLO

Widely acclaimed as an American classic, Mississippi Solo is the book that launched the career of America's premier African American memoirist and travel writer. It is the true story of a young black man's quest : to canoe the length of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans. The trip's dangers were legion for a black man traveling alone, paddling from (as a friend put it) "where there ain't no black folks to where they still don't like us much." He encounters barge wakes, wild dogs, and two shotgun-toting bigots who nearly end his life in the calm of an Arkansas dusk.
Equally significant were the people who reached out to Harris and shared in his adventure. A towboat captain who begins by talking of "niggers" ultimately welcomes Harris as a friend. And from bridges and shorelines come waves of encouragement as Harris tells onlookers he's "headed for New Orleans."