My People

May 1, 2022

New York Times investigative journalists, Pulitzer Prize-winning Bogdanich and George Polk Award-winning Forsythe pool their talents to explain what it means for businesses and government agencies when international consulting firm McKinsey Comes to Town. Chronicling the murder of often-censored Mexican journalist Regina Mart�nez in 2012 after she uncovered shocking evidence regarding the disappearance of thousands of Mexican people, former AP Mexico bureau chief Corcoran plumbs crucial issues of freedom of the press with In the Mouth of the Wolf (60,000-copy first printing). From a Bronx culinary collective, John Gray and others' Ghetto Gastro Black Power Kitchen celebrates Black cuisines and cultures (100,000-copy first printing). Determined to make her immigrant family proud, Higgins worked hard enough to become a managing director at Goldman Sachs; Bully Market describes her encounters with a toxic environment characterized by extravagantly high living and, most disturbingly, discrimination against women and people of color. With My People, celebrated Emmy Award-winning journalist Hunter-Gault collects five decades' worth of reportage, from the Civil Rights era to today, to offer an overview of recent Black American history (75,000-copy first printing).

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Starred review from August 15, 2022
Journalist Hunter-Gault (In My Place) brings together 50 years of her reportage in this powerhouse collection. Much of the work is from the New York Times, the New Yorker, and PBS Newshour—but the earliest piece comes from a 1961 issue of The Urbanite magazine in which she provides a vivid account of the violence that occurred during the integration of the University of Georgia: “I rushed in, only to be stopped in my tracks by another crash as a Coca-Cola bottle followed the brick which had ripped through the window a moment before.” “Poets Extol a Sister’s Unfettered Soul,” written in 1973, covers a festival in Mississippi that celebrated the life and work of poet Phyllis Wheatley​​; a 1975 piece from the Times highlights racial pay disparities in the U.S.; and “Postscript: Julian Bond,” a 2015 New Yorker article, is an ode to the life of the civil rights activist and U.S. Representative. The most recent work is a New Yorker article from July 2021, “The Dangerous Case of Eskinder Nega,” about an Ethiopian journalist imprisoned under the country’s “sweeping, not to mention vague—but let’s do mention it—antiterrorism law.” Whether covering the TV show Black-ish or politics in South Africa, Hunter-Gault employs razor-sharp thinking and a keen journalistic eye. This solidifies her status as one of the greats.

Starred review from September 1, 2022

A nonchronological collection of reporting and essays, from the late 1960s through the present, by Emmy-winning broadcast journalist Hunter-Gault (New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance), who in 1961 was one of two Black students to desegregate the University of Georgia; she's been telling stories and taking part in civil rights activism ever since. Her writing vividly describes the twinning of her own embodied and intellectual lives ("Along with my clothes, I packed my racial consciousness," she writes) and documents watershed moments while retaining a clear-eyed perspective of racial narratives in the United States. In some of the texts, it's painful to see unbridled optimism countered by enduring racist efforts to whitewash history, but Hunter-Gault has organized the book in a way that balances disenchantment with hope. This collection compounds Hunter-Gault's impact by delivering a version of American history that is complex in its backward and forward glimpses and that reinforces the enduring need for telling old stories, so readers can relearn what they should have gotten right decades ago. VERDICT Hunter-Gault's book makes it easy to revisit difficult historical moments and envision better choices, better outcomes, and better futures.--Emily Bowles

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Starred review from October 1, 2022
A distinguished journalist offers a selection of her published work over 50 years chronicling the Black experience. Growing up in Covington, Georgia, Hunter-Gault (b. 1942) dreamed of becoming a journalist like comic-strip reporter Brenda Starr. It was a seemingly impossible dream in the segregated and racist Deep South, but the author was diligent in her quest for knowledge. In 1961, she and Hamilton Holmes became the first Black students to enroll at the University of Georgia, and she graduated in two years. From the mid-1960s onward, she worked for an impressive array of publications and networks, including the Atlanta Inquirer, the New Yorker, the New York Times, NBC, CNN, and PBS NewsHour. In this thematic collection, the author comments insightfully on the decadeslong social developments and unrest in the lives of Black people in both the U.S. and South Africa. The earliest pieces look at the teachings of the Black Panthers, John Lewis' work registering Black voters, early Black urban development projects in law enforcement and education, and the widening Black-White income gap. In the second part, Hunter-Gault presents pieces about "My Sisters," including profiles of NAACP leader Margaret Bush Wilson, poet Phillis Wheatley, and Shirley Chisholm, "the first black woman member of the House of Representatives." Having spent nearly 20 years living in South Africa, Hunter-Gault also offers a unique perspective on the post-apartheid era; her 2010 New Yorker piece "The Third Man," about President Jacob Zumba, is a nuanced portrait of a troubled country and its leaders. The section titled "A Road Less Traveled" serves as an illuminating portrait of the author's upbringing and early influences, while somber commemorations in "Honoring the Ancestors" include salutes to Malcom X, Langston Hughes, Julian Bond, and Nelson Mandela. Despite chronicling periods of enormous pain and despair, Hunter-Gault ends with an upbeat, hopeful interview with David Brooks about working for "common action" since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. A wonderful showcase of the work of an invaluable 20th-century journalist.

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Starred review from September 15, 2022
American civil rights activist and award-winning journalist Hunter-Gault presents a sound collection of articles that vividly chronicles five decades of the African American and Black experience. While writing pieces for the New Yorker and working as a foreign correspondent for NPR and CNN, she was committed to highlighting civil rights issues, solutions, and Black lives during the civil rights movement. She now notes how many of the same problems continue to plague the community. She also shares commentary about people and events in Harlem, New York; her memories of living in South Africa for almost two decades; and stories about Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis. Throughout the years, Hunter-Gault has provided readers with stories about Black people not usually covered by mainstream media. She introduces readers to inspirational stories about fearless African American women leaders at the forefront of the women's liberation and civil rights movements, healthcare reform, and politics, including those striding toward democratic freedom during South African apartheid. My People is an inspirational collection and a must-read for aspiring writers interested in honing their craft and readers who want to become knowledgeable about Black lives past and present.

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