- African American
author, essayist, political activist and lawyer, best known for his novels and
short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the
post-Civil War South.
- In terms of style and
subject matter, his writings straddle the divide between
the local color school of American writing and literary realism.
- The Marrow of Tradition is a fictional account of the rise of the white supremacist movement, specifically as it contributed to what was originally referred to as the "race riots" that took place in Wilmington, N.C. in 1898.