<div>The story of a slave-turned-US senator and an African American dynasty: “A compelling portrait of the Bruce family’s rise, dynamics and downfall.” —The Washington Post  Spanning more than a century, Lawrence Otis’s illuminating biography is a fascinating look at race and class in the latter decades of nineteenth-century America, witnessed through the life of Blanche Kelso Bruce—United States senator from Mississippi and head of America’s first black dynasty. Otis reveals how Bruce rose from slavery to achieve power and prestige in the aftermath of the Civil War. With his wife, the daughter of a prominent Philadelphia physician, he would break social and racial barriers—a legacy continued by their children until scandal destroyed the family’s wealth and stature. Filled with triumph, tragedy, and the complexities and conflicts of the Reconstruction-era South, The Senator and the Socialite brings into focus an important yet little-known part of our nation’s past. “Graham, whose Our Kind of People profiled the black upper class, recovers the history of a family that broke barriers in Washington and at Exeter and Harvard. At the same time, he offers a devastating view of the compromises it made.” —The New Yorker “A poignant tale of struggle, accomplishment and weakness.” —The Washington Post  “Not just a history but a revealing commentary on race and class, and on their inordinately powerful force in shaping our lives today.” —Chicago Tribune</div>

The Senator and the Socialite

<div>"In Member of the Club. [Graham writes of] heartbreaking ironies and contradictions, indignities and betrayals in the life of an upper-class black man." --Philadelphia InquirerInformed and driven by his experience as an upper-middle-class African American man who lives and works in a predominately white environment, provocative author Lawrence Otis Graham offers a unique perspective on the subject of race. An uncompromising work that will challenge the mindset of every reader, Member of the Club is a searching book of essays ranging from examining life as a black Princetonian and corporate lawyer to exploring life as a black busboy at an all white country-club. From New York Magazine cover stories Invisible Man and Harlem on My Mind to such new essays as "I Never Dated a White Girl" and "My Dinner with Mister Charlie: A Black Man's Undercover Guide to Dining with Dignity at Ten Top New York Restaurants," Graham challenges racial prejudice among white Americans while demanding greater accountability and self-determination from his peers in black America."Lawrence Graham surely knows about the pressures of being beholden to two very different groups." --Los Angeles TimesLawrence Otis Graham is a popular commentator on race and ethnicity. The author of ten other books, his work has appeared in New York magazine, the New York Times and The Best American Essays.</div>

Lawrence Otis Graham
Follow this author

Books By Lawrence Otis Graham (2 Books)

The Senator and the Socialite

Member of the Club

Get weekly updates and deals from Early Bird Books

More from

Corporate

© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA