By Clint Smith
“The sky above the Mississippi River stretched out like a song. The river was still in the windless afternoon, its water yellowish-brown from the sediment it carried across thousands of miles of farmland, cities, and suburbs on its way south. At dusk, the lights of the Crescent City Connection, a pair of steel cantilever bridges that cross the river and connect the east and west banks of New Orleans, flickered on. Luminous bulbs ornamented the bridges’ steel beams like a congregation of fireflies settling onto the backs of two massive, unbothered creatures. A tugboat made its way downriver, pulling an enormous ship in its wake. The sounds of the French Quarter, just behind me, pulsed through the brick sidewalk underfoot... People gathered for photos along the river’s edge, hoping to capture an image of themselves surrounded by a recognizable piece of quintessential New Orleans iconography.”
So begins CLINT SMITH's #1 New York Times bestseller, HOW THE WORD IS PASSED: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Backed by the authenticity of his exquisitely written and painstakingly researched exploration of our history and contemporary state of mind, he takes us to the marrow of who we are as a nation, what we’ve done, where we’ve been, what must change, why, and—if we listen we are brave enough to take the journey—how.
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