did he personally know langston hughes? >> good question. i don't know if there is any contact between robinson and langston hughes. there is also a great count basie song. did you see jackie robinson hit that ball? he was writing columns all season long in the chicago defender about jackie robinson. i'm sure he must have seen him play, but there is no evidence that there was contact. jackie robinson's main man in the press was wendell smith. he was his roommate on the road. the dodgers hired him to travel with robinson because none of the white ball players would room with him. in cities where they could not find hotels, where they could not stay together wendell smith and jackie robinson would go off on their own and find houses to stay in or black-owned hotels. it was up to wendell smith to arrange for black taxi companies to pick them up and to find black restaurants where they could eat. wendell smith was a very important player in the story of jackie robinson's success in 1947. >> i was curious about jackie robinson's salary in 1947. c

is, was jackie robinson aware of the reaction and did he personally know langston hughes? i don't know that there was any contact between robinson and hughes. song and thereat first lyrics were written in 1947. he was writing about him often and i'm sure you must have seen him play. jackie robinson's main man in the press, wendell smith was his roommate on the road. the dodgers actually hired him to travel with robinson. in cities where they couldn't find hotels, where the white and black players couldn't stay together, wendell smith and jackie robinson would go find houses to state -- stay in. it was up to wendell smith to arrange for black taxi companies to come pick them up and find black restaurants where they auld eat. wendell smith was very important player in the story of jackie robinson's in 1947. >> i was curious of jackie robinson's salary in 1947 compared to other rookies with his same skill sets. jackie robinson may delete minimum, $5,000. the league minimum, $5,000. season, he was rewarded with a very small raise. jackie robinson accepted the first offer that h

mexico at this time period and language is a big part of it as well so there's a great line from langston hughes that i quoted in the book and johnson does the same thing so that when you have to buy your ticket on the railroad and it's one of the places that are segregated during this time, you buy your ticket in spanish and the ticket taker will often make the assumption because there is no way to prove your race, no one has a driver's license or passport or anything so they can make an assumption they must be mexican and they will sell you a ticket for the first-class car. so language became a useful tool and james johnson does the first debate the same thing so this is one of the things that he first learned spanish he was picking coffin alongside the field hands in victoria and that interesting interaction allows him to do all these other things and in an interesting way play on the stereotypes of texans who have a certain sense of a mexican is supposed to be an and an african-american iandafrican-ame to manipulate the stereotypes to his own advantage. >> i'm going to ask one more question

he mentioned in the book, langston hughes and you just mentioned james weldon johnson.he also mentioned larson. when i think about the work of -- who depicts this effort to pass as latino infection. is there any evidence of ellis at all being witness of the tales of slavery are passing? >> that was great question. it is fascinating. i have to believe that he was on them at the same time the trickiest part about the book as he is living in new york city during the harlem renaissance i feel that some level he is participating in that although he has to be careful in how much he gets involved. he is trying to hide certain aspects of his bathroom. fascinated things. sort of - one of the themes that talk about in the book is the notion of him as a trickster.which i think comes from african-american folklore. i have to believe that these trickster stories which were really central to folklore from slavery in this aftermath. in some way that they get formed his perspective on the world. that is a leap of faith that i'm making in his cultural background. >> as a read your book.