My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives

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. (Oct.)