Rebecca Hollingsworth was raised in rural Florida, which she says was every bit as backward as any place in the Deep South. With a degree in graphic design from the University of Florida, she moved to New York City in 1968 to work in advertising. After several years, she turned South again, this time to Atlanta, her home for the next 35 years. Growing restless after 15 years in advertising and design, she started a service business in Atlanta, which she ran successfully for 20 years until a nationwide company purchased it, allowing her to retire at age 50.
She moved to Charleston, South Carolina, a history town that offered endless avenues of exploration into the past. Her philanthropic work assembling a collection of slave artifacts for the Ryan Slave Mart Museum in Charleston grew out of her interest in the institution of slavery. From there she started trying to understand influences on modern day Black/White conflicts. In the year 2000, flack over the Confederate flag flying from the dome of the State House in Columbia forced Southerners to face the complications of race as they never had.
Born in 1945, the author vividly remembers seeing White and Colored drinking fountains as a child. The Catbird Seat offers rich personal observations and historical research that bring to the reader a deeply thoughtful and honest perspective on race, not likely to be found elsewhere.