Jeff Nebeker-Johnson

Although I have spent the last 35 years practicing medicine, my love for writing has been overpowering. My themes are those of resilience, strong families, and justice for the underdog.

At the age of eleven, my fifth-grade history teacher embarked on a project which included seven of her top students. The seven of us wrote chapters for what was to become a history book for the fifth graders in the Los Angeles County School System. Our work took most of the school year, delving deeply into the history of the United States. Each of us received the Valley Forge Freedom Award for our efforts for Reminiscing Our Country’s Heritage.

In 2014, I decided to work on our family genealogy. Much of the work had already been accomplished, but I was able to trace the remaining family back to Adam. Soon after, I began doing work on the genealogy of enslaved and freemen and their families. In the last few years, I have performed genealogy for over 11,000 people.

In the Missouri Census of 1870, I ran across a name which kept me sleepless for weeks: Darkness Knox. Little is known today about Darkness Knox. We do know she was formerly enslaved, lived alone, and had no family that I could trace her to. I wondered who was cruel enough to name her Darkness because of the color of her skin. Soon after, I discovered the 1936 Federal Writer’s Project. This group was sent out to document the lives of still living former slaves in the southern states. One of the people interviewed was Delicia Ann Wiley Patterson. Between her amazing story and the lone Darkness Knox, the Darkness Saga was born.