Yet fate and a Ph.D. in black studies force him back to his rural origins as he seeks to understand himself and the black community that produced him. A cold, nonchalant father and an emotionally indifferent mother make his return, after a ten-year hiatus, practically unbearable, and the discovery of his baby sister's death and her burial in the backyard almost consumes him. His mother watches his agony when he discovers his sister's tombstone, but neither she nor other family members is willing to disclose the secret of her death. Only after being prodded incessantly does his older brother, Willie James, relent and provide Tommy Lee with enough knowledge to figure out exactly what happened and why. Meanwhile, Tommy's seventy-year-old teacher--lying on her deathbed--asks him to remain in Swamp Creek and assume her position as the headmaster of the one-room schoolhouse. He refuses vehemently and she dies having bequeathed him her five thousand-book collection in the hopes that he will change his mind. Over the course of a one-week visit, riddled with tension, heartache, and revelation, Tommy Lee Tyson discovers truths about his family, his community, and his undeniable connection to rural Southern black folk and their ways.

    In this unforgettable novel, her name is Harlem.Harlem Jones is a twenty-six-year-old bad-ass female who owns her own home, her own car, and her own business. And no, some drug dealer didn't front her the money for any of it. Nor did she have to sell herself to get what she's got. Harlem came up the hard way. She had the perfect family until her mother fell prey to an addiction and Harlem's whole world fell apart. After several life-changing encounters, Harlem seems to have lost everything. But then, under circumstance she wishes never existed, she inherits a modest fortune and opens up her own business. Then into her life comes an unexpected and unlikely love, a street-bred charmer named York. Not your typical hood, York is out for Harlem's heart. But when tragedy strikes, Harlem knows that, as a survivor, she must be the one to decide her own destiny.

    DuBois, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa Movement, and the glamour of the Cotton Club. The Color Line follows one soldier's personal journey from his wedding day to the trenches of the Western Front and home again.Along with hundreds of other young Black men from Harlem, Serval Rivard joins the U.S. Army in 1918 -- not for glory, just respect -- despite the prospect of menial work and segregation. But due to mounting casualties on the Western Front, a twist of fate has them reassigned to French command. In recognition of their valor, the French dub them "The Harlem Hellfighters."After surviving the horrors of the war, Rivard returns to his bride and a community on the rise. But as reports pour into Harlem of Black soldiers lynched in the uniforms of their country, it becomes clear that despite Black progress and military accomplishments, America's racial divide remains immutably in place. For Rivard and his family, the Great War has ended, but a new war has begun -- the war of the American Color Line.