Dr. Charlie Wilson publishes an autobiography
Dr. Charlie Wilson, Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture, Sciences and Technology, has become the latest published author at Delaware State University with the release of his autobiography During Racism’s Remission – From Colored Fieldworker to Black Professor.
It was concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic that prompted Dr. Wilson to start writing about his life.
“In the fall of 2020, I started to write some of my life story down for my sons, just in case something happened to me with the virus. I didn’t want my personal history lost with me,” Dr. Wilson said. “The list of events, situations, and recollections began to grow, and as I started to flesh out the narrative, it was clear to see that an autobiography was developing.
He said as it became apparent that a COVID vaccination would be a reality, the urgency to complete his personal history waned and he stopped writing in early 2021. However, near the end of that year, Dr. Wilson decided to complete the manuscript and get it published.
In During Racism’s Remission, Dr. Wilson shares his journey from rural poverty to his years as an undergraduate at then-Delaware State College, in the Marine Corps, and his graduate studies at University of Delaware, as well as almost 25 years of teaching and working at Delaware State University. The events in his life are examined through a prism of race relations (and sometimes racial tension) of a 50-year period that he describes as a “remission of the cancer of America,” in the form of racism.
“Years of optimism in finding an ultimate cure with justice, equality, and harmony as outcomes now seems threatened by signs of a relapse in the cultural health of the nation,” Dr. Wilson said. “Issues surrounding race in the years leading to 2020 are also discussed.”
The approximately 300-page During Racism’s Remission will be available through Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and several other retailers as an eBook on April 11. Softcover versions will be available later in the week through Amazon, followed by hardcopy versions.
Dr. Wilson has been a DSU faculty member since 1997 when he arrived as an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. He is a Del State alumnus, Class of 1984.