Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, And Redemption of The Black Athlete

In FORTY MILLION DOLLAR SLAVES: THE RISE, FALL, AND REDEMPTION OF THE BLACK ATHLETE (Crown, $23.95), veteran New York Times reporter William C. Rhoden deconstructs the

Black athlete in an explosive and absorbing discussion of race, politics and the history of American sports. From Jackie Robinson and Muhammad All to Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, Black athletes have been at the center of modern culture. Rhoden weaves a compelling narrative of their history while making the argument that the "evolution" of the Black athlete has merely been a journey from literal plantations to figurative ones. Rhoden explains that every advance made by Black athletes has been met with an insurmountable setback--one such example being the integration of Major League Baseball, which stripped the Negro Leagues of its talent and left it to flounder. Rhoden details the "conveyor belt" that brings kids from inner cities and small towns to big-time athletic programs, where they are cut off from their heritage and exploited by team owners, the media, and others. The author argues that for all of their money and fame, Black athletes are no better off today than slaves, whose masters forced them to race and fight in this eye-opening exploration of the lives of Black athletes.

In E. Lynn Harris' newest novel, I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER (Doubleday, $21.95), he sets out to break down another taboo in the Black community--homophobia in the church-by writing about it much like he did with the issue of Black men living on the down-low 10 years ago in his breakthrough novel INVISIBLE LIFE. I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER is vintage Harris, who has created a new cast of characters (with a cameo appearance by the notorious John Basil Henderson) in a story filled with sex, humor and plenty of plot twists.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Johnson Publishing Co.
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