An American Story

A powerfully compelling, unsparing memoir from a widely admired African-American journalist. Debra Dickerson's parents were share-croppers who migrated north after World War II. Born in 1959, Dickerson is an amalgam of her background--rural southern conservative and midwestern liberal--and at the same time a contemporary woman whose life has been shaped by the hardscrabble determination of her heritage. In this book Dickerson bears brilliant witness to her rich, tumultuous life: the...
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A powerfully compelling, unsparing memoir from a widely admired African-American journalist. Debra Dickerson's parents were share-croppers who migrated north after World War II. Born in 1959, Dickerson is an amalgam of her background--rural southern conservative and midwestern liberal--and at the same time a contemporary woman whose life has been shaped by the hardscrabble determination of her heritage. In this book Dickerson bears brilliant witness to her rich, tumultuous life: the crippling self-doubt of her adolescence and her belief in education as a way out; her transformation in the U.S. Air Force into a distinguished intelligence officer; her years at Harvard Law School and metamorphosis into a "neurotic attorney with a Gold Card"; and, finally, her current position as a journalist in demand for her refreshing and controversially sane views on social issues. With sharp intelligence and fierce wit, Dickerson shows us how she became what she is today--an iconoclastic American who transcends traditional notions of race and class.