Historian, and University of Pennsylvania professor, Thomas Sugrue is the author of Not Even Past: Barack Obama And The Burden of Race. But Thomas really came to my attention for his book The Origins Of The Urban Crisis, the best book I have ever read on Detroit, and amidst the current flurry of Detroit stories, the only thing worth reading. Origins is an essential corrective to the notion that the riots, Coleman Young, and Kwame Kilpatrick "ruined" Detroit. Exceptional book. Along with Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier, Sugrue's tome really closed the door on the "What's Wrong With Black People" questions.

Christopher Jackson is an editor at Spiegel and Grau, the publisher of, among many other fine, fine works, my book, The Beautiful Struggle. Chris is the only person who bid on my memoir, and it would not exist without him. Whatever humble successes I have recently achieved, were made possible by Chris's faith in my work. When people wonder about the importance of diversity, especially in publishing, I think of Chris. Singular among everyone who has guest-posted here, he is dear to me because he helped make so much of it possible.

Enjoy folks.