This book is a charming combination of memoir and history as Lawrence P. Jackson, who teaches African-American Studies and English at Emory University, tell not only his genealogical journey but also what he found out about Pittsylvania County history. "Lawrence P. Jackson's matter-of-fact prose is accessible and is strangely and beautifully evocative of the Civil War era. We not only learn about the deprivations, inhumanity, and constant humiliations perpetrated on black people in the nineteenth century, but we gain a deeper understanding of what constitutes American culture and society today." - Edward P. Jones.
“My Father’s Name is a memorable venture in personal and family history—scrupulous, candid, imaginative, and weighty in its commentary on the abiding conflicts in American culture over the issues of race, injustice, and our common humanity.” - Arnold Rampersad. “Through the Jackson family saga, Jackson recounts the broader African American story of struggle through slavery and Reconstruction. Jackson writes with the detailed precision of a scholar but the emotional attachment of a kinsman.”—Booklist.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012. 243 pages with an Index, Notes, and photos.