Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored

A businessman included in Time magazine's recent issue on blacks ``making it in white America,'' the author lives with his wife and children in Tulsa, Okla. It's a long way from tiny Glen Allen, Miss., where Taulbert grew up in the 1950s, a time and place he describes with love in this funny, sweet, touching memoir. Although his community knew the sting of discrimination, relations between white and colored were generally amicable. His cruellest memory of childhood occurred in Jackson, when he and his uncle were evicted from a circus by an usher: ``This ain't the night for niggers.'' That is the only bitter note in a book about poor families who shared joys, sorrows and occasional treats in celebration of their heroes--Jackie Robinson, Marian Anderson, Joe Louis et al.--and about the author's triumph as an honor student in high school and college. Photos not seen by PW. (July)