The year was 1932. A lot had happened between the stock crash of '29 and now. Unemployment peaked at 33%, the Dust Bowl brutally ravaged farmlands in the West, and racial intolerance was at an all-time high.
The Great Depression affected many citizens gravely and the U.S. was plunging ever deeper into an inauspicious financial crisis. One such man affected by this was a guy by the name of Robert Neville.
Robert was born in 1889 in Springfield, Illinois, to former slaves from Missouri who had fought for the Union during the Civil War. He was a brilliant man and an intellect; he studied medicine at a college in Trenton, New Jersey for six years and received his Masters in pathophysiology.
Robert, like any ordinary person, bought war bonds during the Great War and began investing in the stock market ever since, but luckily he sensed something impactful was lurking and made a withdrawal of all his money, and the following year, the stock market crashed.
Since Robert was black, he received his fair share of racial discrimination and hatred, but that didn't stop him from taking dangerous gambits. From a young age, he was inspired by influential figures such as Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois and how they dealt with the wraths of racism. Robert always wanted the chance to prove that black people were as capable as whites in any field of work. His mother gave him full support but his father, who adhered to the words of Booker T. Washington, explained times were tense and now was not the time to be a martyr, but Robert explained nothing was going to get done just by sitting around and let racism spread like a virus throughout society and spread to future generations. His father reluctantly agreed for his son to begin this crusade, but warned him of the consequences he'd face and possibly even death from white radicals.
Very diligent and prioritized in his gambit, he left his family in 1930 seeking a job in the South.
Even though the South wasn't as tedious as it was before and during the Civil War, intimidation played a key factor in normal southern society.
Robert had gone from southern state to state, starting first in Houston and making his way to Jackson. Sometimes, he would just walk in a store and would leave just by looking at the owner's or employee's ominous and disturbing looks at him.
Finally, Robert lost all hope and before he decided to leave to the North, he was stopped by the one and only Tim Johnson.
Tim Johnson was like any normal dog… if you consider a dog talking and standing on its hind legs "normal." Tim's past is opaque and one of the things he can't clearly recall. His earliest memory was being employed as an accountant in Missouri, and he won big respect from many customers and eventually became the general manager of a federal bank in Maryland.
After seeing his potential, a few marketers invited him to work with the "big shots" in New York, like Jack Zuta and Huguette Clark. Tim denied the offer and went in search of a simple life, but simple wasn't good enough for Tim for he was well-known throughout the U.S. Tim traveled to the South in 1932 and found the ambitious yet unsophisticated Robert Neville. Tim took Robert under his wing, and the two developed a fond and respectful friendship.
Later that month, they became businessmen and opened a franchise in the quiet town of Abbeville, Mississippi, called Ya'lls Bakery Needs. Though Robert was extraordinarily ambitious and let his greed of things precede his foresight, Tim was the patient type and invested their money properly. Robert had gotten in a quarrel with Tim about expanding the franchise, but Tim was trying to avoid public life as much as he could and felt this town was the best he's had in years and denied the various requests.
Often Robert would get death threats from white bakery owners throughout the state and warned him to shut down his business, but Tim reassured their only scare tactic was bluffing and that the only coward is the one who cannot challenge the other one head-to-head. Tim would soon learn that from experience.
