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How I shed my skin unlearning the racist lessons of a Southern childhood

"In August of 1966, Jim Grimsley entered the sixth grade in the same public school he had attended for the five previous years in his small eastern North Carolina hometown. But he knew that the first day of this school year was going to be different: for the first time he'd be in a classro...

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Main Author: Grimsley, Jim, 1955- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2015.
Edition: First edition.
Subjects:
Grimsley, Jim, > 1955- > Childhood and youth.
Segregation in education > North Carolina > Pollocksville > History > 20th century.
African Americans > Education > North Carolina > Pollocksville > History > 20th century.
Public schools > North Carolina > Pollocksville > History > 20th century.
Whites > North Carolina > Pollocksville > Biography.
African Americans > North Carolina > Pollocksville > Biography.
Summary: "In August of 1966, Jim Grimsley entered the sixth grade in the same public school he had attended for the five previous years in his small eastern North Carolina hometown. But he knew that the first day of this school year was going to be different: for the first time he'd be in a classroom with black children ... Now, over forty years later, Grimsley ... revisits that school and those times, remembering his personal reaction to his first real exposure to black children and to their culture, and his growing awareness of his own mostly unrecognized racist attitudes"--Provided by publisher.
Physical Description: xii, 275 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 9781616203764 (hbk.)
1616203765 (hbk.)
Author Notes: Jim Grimsley's first novel, Winter Birds (1994), has been called a harrowing portrayal of family violence. It garnered the North Carolina native the 1995 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Grimsley, who admits he writes autobiographical fiction, has also written Dream Boy (1995), and My Drowning (1997). He is also a playwright and has contributed short stories to anthologies such as Men on Men 6: Best New Gay Fiction (1996).

Grimsley's plays have been produced nationwide, including at Atlanta's 7 Stages Theatre, where he has been a writer-in-residence for ten years. Jim Grimsley has been awarded the Bryan Prize for Drama by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the George Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Playwright of 1988.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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