The author was raised in a sleepy English suburb, where her parents were white, her friends were white, and there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark curly hair frequently make her a target of prejudice. After her father's death she began to search for the truth about her parentage, and the racial identity she had been denied. She fled the UK and lived in Black communities around the world:...

In December 1957, Blanche Bosanquet Knowles, the wealthy young wife of a citrus baron, is raped in her home while her husband is away. Journalist Mabel Norris Reese and an inexperienced young lawyer pursue the case, winning unlikely allies and chasing down leads until at long last they begin to unravel the unspeakable truths behind a racial conspiracy that shocked a community into silence.

In 1870, seventy-five Chinese laborers are unwittingly brought in as strikebreakers at a shoe factory in the town of North Adams, Massachusetts, setting off a conflict with the locals.

"Coming Up the Hard Way "Sometimes, in a tough neighborhood, where there is no way for a kid to prove himself except by playing games and fighting, you've got to establish a record for being able to look out for yourself before they will leave you alone. If they think you're an easy mark, they will all look to build up their own reputations by beating up on you. I learned always to get in the first punch." Althea Gibson, 1958 Four days after her historic...

Describes the political and demographic upheaval that has juxtaposed opulent wealth and extreme poverty in the modern American West, from drug addiction epidemics in New Mexico to an exclusive enclave on the Rio Grande in Texas.