Examines four different elements of the African American experience as well as the legacy of the Civil Rights movement, in a collection of essays based on interviews with Colin Powell, Morgan Freeman, Vernon Jordan, and other notables.
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Gates, the eminent Harvard scholar and author, traveled around the US to find out why and how black America has split into what he sees as two distinct communities: one privileged and one disenfranchised. The book, the companion to a PBS television series of the same name, comprises about 40 essays focusing on individuals (both prominent and obscure) who inhabit four spheres: the "ebony towers" of academia, government, and business; the American South, whose black population increased by almost 3.6 million in the 1990s; black Hollywood; and Chicago's South Side, where a parallel world of extreme black poverty persists. Gates' interviewees talk about race, class, and what it means to be African-American in the 21st century. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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