By Emily Mukasa

As a young girl growing up in Denver Charlene Porter remembers overhearing her parents and their friends tell stories about the Ku Klux Klan a racial separatist and hate-based organization. The Klan, also known as the KKK originated in the South and has become a national movement with chapters across the United States.

According to Porter’s parents, Lucille Marie Russell Porter and John William Porter, the Klan controlled Colorado in the 1920s. The Colorado branch, in collaboration with a national network, had plans to put a president in office that would support and keep the racist laws of that time alive, laws such as the one percent law that said if you had one percent Black blood you were considered Black, and therefore could not receive the same benefits as whites.

Those memories which were imbedded in her childhood instilled a passion for her to tell and write stories. Porter first displayed her passion for writing as a child when she was asked to write letters for her friends to their boyfriends. She also entered teen fiction writing contests. Although she didn’t win any, it became clear that writing was what she wanted to do. After high school, Porter attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism with a film and television minor.

Shortly after college, Porter began to write articles for magazines which led to her writing scripts for television. Her big break came when she sold WNBS-TV two Black history docudrama scripts on Benjamin Banneker and Frederick Douglas. Both productions were cast and subsequently, the films had repeat airings and won a variety of media awards.

In 1980 Porter relocated to Los Angeles to pursue her goal of writing and directing feature film. She soon discovered the Hollywood entertainment industry wasn’t as kind as the East Coast film industry. Porter was told that neither she nor her products fit the demographics of the people the producers wanted to reach with their productions. Determined to keep her dream alive, Porter took a secretarial job and continued freelance writing while interning for several student films.

Porter’s journey led her back to Denver where she took a job as an office manager working for former State Senator Regis Groff. Her creative drive continued to surge. In 1982, Porter wrote, produced and directed a play about Harriet Tubman which debuted on the Denver Center for Performing Art’s main stage.

With what she considered professional production credits under her belt, Porter returned to Los Angeles and accepted a position as Project Director with the History Media Institute at the University of Southern California. In this position she was able to write several TV and film scripts. One of her scripts was optioned by award-winning actress and producer, Marla Gibbs, co-star of the 1970s TV show, The Jeffersons.

 Even with her accomplishments, Porter was still living on the fringe as a starving artist.  She was doing what she loved but she still didn’t have a steady source of income. To support herself and to continue writing, she began teaching at Crenshaw High, one of Los Angeles’ most recognized African American high schools.

Porter taught for 11 years and was given an award for being among the “Who’s Who of America’s Teachers.” She loved her students, but her dream to write for a living was still in the back of her mind.  In 1996, Porter said she asked God to give her a sign whether she should resume writing. Finding a letter from best-selling author Terry McMillan was that sign. 

In 1997, at the Black Ski Summit in Vail, Colorado, Porter approached McMillan and told her she was writing a book. She later wrote the author asking for encouragement to fulfill her dream. She was shocked when McMillan wrote her back promising her she would read Porter’s book when it was published.  Ironically, Porter received this letter on a day when her spirit needed a bit of encouragement.

It was at that moment Porter made the decision to write and publish her first novel, Bold Faced Lies. This novel was inspired by the lives of Blacks from her parents’ era who felt driven to hide their ethnic identity to survive slavery by using a tactic called “passing.”  Passing was part of Charlene’s family lineage. “People would do anything to pass for white in order to avoid the problems Blacks had to endure in a racist society,” said Porter.

 Bold Faced Lies tells the story of a Black family fighting to survive life during the American West around 1925.  Main characters are a Black slave merchant from Colorado who passed for white, his undeniably Black twin sister and his very white-looking daughter. The merchant, in an effort to give his daughter a better life, marries her to an ambitious KKK leader. His daughter discovers her true ethnic identity, and from there, the story tells a riveting tale about betrayal, truth, injustice and victory. 

Porter, who admits that she barely made enough money to eat while writing the book, credits her good friends and her late mother for giving her the support and financial backing to complete her dream. “My mother, Lucille, passed away in 1995.  She supported me even when people told her she was a fool for doing so,” said Porter.
She feels good that she kept her promise to her mother and finished the book.

Porter isn’t finished writing though. In fact, she’s just getting started. She has plans to write children’s books and wants to write a series of books on the lives of the generations who followed those in her first book. 

“I hope to motivate people with my books to ask themselves: What is race? What are the problems that revolve around race we need to deal with today?  How can we embrace our racial identities yet move forward?”

Editor’s note: A book launch and signing for Bold Faced Lies, will be held on July 17 at 7 p.m. at the Tattered Cover Bookstore located at 1590 Wynkoop in LoDo. The event will be sponsored by the African American Leadership Institute. Advance copies of the book can be purchased from the Tattered Cover Bookstore. For more information about Charlene Porter and Bold Faced Lies, visit her web site at www.charleneporter.com.