and booker wright had stolen the show. >> we don't have a real menu. d to tell you what we're going to serve tonight. >> reporter: booker's description of life in the jim crow south was perhaps the first time many white americans had heard a black man speak so bluntly. >> some call me bookie. some call me john. some call me jim. some call me nigger. but you have to smile. >> my heart broke for him as i watched it and he talked about that daily humiliation. you know, part of me wanted to reach back and comfort him. >> could you recognize the jeopardy he was putting himself in? >> when i first saw it, no. because i still didn't really understand greenwood. >> reporter: yvette set out for greenwood in the company of the filmmaker, ray defilito. both were about to have a rendezvous with history. see what they uncover on their journey back to mississippi on a special "dateline" tonight called "finding booker's place." >>> we learned today that one of the greats in stage and screen has died. celeste holm won an oscar for her supporting role in the 1946 classi

. >> there was a definite shift in her tone when she talked about booker wright. >> reporter: yvette ut booker who was a waiter at a white's only restaurant in the 60s. >> he acted like he found some sort of a dignitary. >> suggested that booker was a civil rights icon. >> reporter: he took her booker wright had once said something controversial about civil rights on tv but knew little about it. >> i couldn't find anything. i started to think that maybe it was not real. >> this is booker wright. >> reporter: it was. in 2010 out of the blue a film maker sent yvette a 1966 nbc documentary about race relations in mississippi. and booker wright had stolen the show. >> i will be glad to say what we are going to serve today. >> reporter: booker's description of life in the jim crow south was perhaps the first time many white americans had heard a black man speak so bluntly. >> some call me jim. >> my heart broke for him as i watched it and he talked about humiliation. part of me wanted to reach back and comfort him. >> could you recognize the jeopardy he was putting himself in? >>. when i f

without warning, booker wright began speaking candidly and in language that viewers then and now might >> some call me booker. some call me john. some call me jim. some call me anythinger. >> the very existence had been a little more than a rumor to yvette. >> my heart broke for her and he talked about that daily humiliation. >> could you recognize the jeopardy he was putting himself in? >> when i first saw it, no. >> but that was about to change. in a matter of weeks, yvette and ray were on their way to mississippi with a film crew in tow. both were about to have a ender view. >> finding booker's place tonight. i'll be online chatting live with viewers on dateline's new social website called chatline. i hope you'll join me. >>> inside one of the world's biggest pop culture conventions, comic-con is coming up. ♪ [ female announcer ] with depression, simple pleasures can simply hurt. the sadness, anxiety, the loss of interest. the aches and pains and fatigue. depression hurts. cymbalta can help with many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you

the film outraged some southern viewers in part because of a scene featuring booker wright, an african-americang at a whites only restaurant in greenwood, mississippi. more than four decades later, booker's granddaughter and the film maker's son went back together to mississippi, searching for answers to booker wright's life and his untimely death. "dateline" anchor, lester holt, joins me now. this is a fascinating story. >> it's a fascinating story. think about it was laying in the nbc news archives. this story was a documentary really about the white perspective on segregation in mississippi and they happened upon this black waiter from a white restaurant who really unloaded about his pain, what it was truly like to be a black man in greenwood during the jim crow south. i want to warn you before we play a clip for you, you will hear a word in this report that you don't often hear on tv and one that i think you will appreciate, i don't take lightly but it's important to understand the depth of his pain and why this was so shocking at the time and now. here it is. the words were heart-felt and

alaoods onef tho whites who knew and liked booker wright. >> he was great personality, good man.tha sdayveni ay 196he t ppy--luc bla manlan od h kno forost ois fedenlppead on his tv set, saying he wasn't happy. >> night after night, i lay down and i dream abo wt had t go throh. i n't nt mchilen tave to gthroh. >>that the fir tim i realed bkerelt ttwa afteth sho a lot ofeopl were pretty upset. >> many whites in greenwood shunned booker aft that. on the black side of the acks book's mologecamhe stufof lege. peoe w thoht wld ve bn t yng to kw hi ew h byreputation. it became almost folklor in greenwood. >> he's almost the accidtal activist nothing in booker ight's history suggestehe was an actist bore saihis and didt rely say athin abt itafrwar, ts o timebut h was beannd h id a hvy pri f wha he id otv tha d and this had been long forgotten but now thanks to hisrandfather or granddaughter and thanks to this film mar, they are nowelli his ory. >>hank tyou,este thiss exaordary. at end upappeng t okerwrig? how d he e? >>e weate -- heas mueredever yea lat and there's some question as to w