One of the things we tell ourselves as African-Americans is if we work hard, play by the rules, we do start back a little ways, but if we can be twice as good, somehow we can escape history and heritage and legacy.

It's hard for me to view Baltimore outside the context of what Baltimore has always been in my mind: a violent place.

[Clyde Ross] was stationed in California. He found that he could go into stores without being bothered. He could walk the streets without being harassed. He could go into a restaurant and receive service.

I would say as a journalist, I would envision travelling to other countries that have had to reckon with their past and see how they've done it: what worked, what didn't work, finding characters that would tell the story of how that process was done.

You're allowed to work hard and have good things and do good things.

In the 1920s, Jim Crow Mississippi was, in all facets of society, a kleptocracy.