My Father's Name

An African American studies scholar traces his family lineage to a Black Virginia neighborhood in the era of Reconstruction in this historical memoir. As an expectant father, Lawrence P. Jackson decides to go looking for his late grandfather’s home in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, an old house by the railroad tracks in Blairs. Armed with nothing but childhood memories, his journey evolves into a kind of detective story as he uncovers his ancestral history through the turmoil and torment of the