A review by lauramcgaha
Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark Whitaker

5.0

Not being a fan of ANY sports, I had my doubts when the book started off with a boxing story. But the writing and narrative compelled me to have a computer close by so that I could Google all of the places and people mentioned. While the book is about Pittsburgh, specifically, having a black renaissance that rivaled Harlem's, the take-a-way is that cities all over the country experienced the same: creative genius fighting both the remnant of Jim Crow and a majority population that thought they were inferior. EVEN IN THE NORTH (or as Pittsburgh, shamefully, was called -- Up South).