In Search Of Black America: Discovering The Africanamerican Dream [Paperback]

“Candid and consistently engaging, Dent's work contributes to a better understanding of the role of race in American life.”

—Publishers Weekly

This landmark work looks at the lives of African Americans throughout the United States and challenges the typical notions of race across the nation.

Noted journalist and professor David Dent spent five years crisscrossing America on a mission to expose prevalent myths and stereotypes. With tape recorder in hand, he stopped in Detroit, Washington, D.C., Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Gallipolis, Ohio, Seattle, Virginia, and many other places, documenting widespread diversity in the lives of the black majority—middle and upper-middle class African Americans.

Candid and honest, controversial and pragmatic, and peopled with an eclectic and insightful array of characters,In Search of Black Americais written with journalistic fervor and will change the way people view this piece of America that is often over-looked and little understood. This important and timely book is an invaluable addition to the ever-evolving debate about race in America.David J. Dent, a professor of journalism at New York University, writes for many publications. His work has appeared inThe New York Times Magazine,The Washington Post,Essence, andNewsday. He lives in New York City with his wife, Valerie, and two children, Lynnette and David Jr.Chapter One: The Emancipation: Day One

he habit formed with Nigger Hair Tobacco. Nearly twenty years ago, Elaine Armstrong, now forty-eight, saw a tin can bearing that name. The words seemed to shout at Armstrong, who lives in rural Gallia County, Ohio.

She ran across the brown can for sale at a flea market. It was empty; the grain either chewed or inhaled decades ago -- spat on some ground or blown into the air and lost into the earth.

The value today is in the clarity of the brand ló(