Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America

In this elegant account, former Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Robinson (Disintegration) uses his own family tree as a window onto Black history. Spanning five generations, the narrative illustrates the halting two steps forward, one step back progress toward equality that characterizes civil rights in the U.S.. Those profiled include Robinson’s great-grandfather Major Fordham, born in 1856, who “took advantage of fleeting Reconstruction-era opportunity” to become a lawyer and politician before Jim Crow hindered his ability to rise further, and his great-uncle Marion, who was drafted to serve in the legendary segregated Buffalo Soldiers infantry division in WWI and returned home to the Red Summer of 1919, when white mobs attacked Black people in cities across America. As Robinson situates his family members within major events in U.S. history, he notes, again and again, how white history comes to dominate and obliterate Black history. He gives as one example the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, the killing of three Black students during a civil rights protest. Few know of the slaying today, Robinson observes, compared to the Kent State shooting two years later, highlighting how “the nation’s historical memory gives primacy” to whiteness. Novelistic and at times achingly poignant, it’s a lyrical account of one family’s hard-won achievements in the face of bitter oppression. (Feb.)