Michael Kleber-Diggs - Minneapolis Star-Tribune Sorin combines impeccable, exhaustive research and personal stories with a seamless elegance, somehow managing to hold the object under examination far enough away to consider it fully and close enough to really inhabit it. She writes in a way that academics and laypersons will both admire. Sorin, a professor at State University of New York at Albany, dazzles with plain language. It is the work of a brilliant mind and a beautiful heart. Carter, Bloomberg, 'Best Nonfiction Books of 2020'ĭriving While Black is a marvel. Sorin weaves together gruesome tales of Black accident victims, the way Black affluence led corporations to try to profit from integration, and much more. I’d never given much thought to how the ability of Black families to afford cars and go places influenced the course of history. A scholarly examination of the history of black mobility in this country from the antebellum period to now, including the ongoing quest by whites in power to deny or restrict that mobility. Deeply researched… Driving While Black is more focused on the history of African-American car ownership and travel, exploring why both have been so important to African-American life. Make powerfully clear the magnitude of the injustices and harrowing encounters endured by African-Americans traveling by ‘open’ road, as well as of their quiet acts of rebellion and protest, which went far beyond having to find alternative places to eat, sleep and buy gas….

Book driving while black