Just three months before Curtis W. Harris was born in Dendron, Virginia, in 1924, the state legislature passed the Racial Integrity Act, which banned interracial marriage down to “a single drop” of African blood. Harris was the sixth child of impoverished sharecroppers, living in a desolate outpost of the Commonwealth, but in time he would lead the fight against this law and many others. Despite being arrested multiple times and beaten, Reverend Harris would help reverse centuries of racial discrimination that began when slaves first arrived in Virginia in 1619. Author William Paul Lazarus tells the story of Harris’s determination in the face of intense hostility, which took him to the forefront of America’s civil rights movement, arm in arm with Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
William Paul Lazarus is an award-winning newspaper reporter and magazine editor who has published a variety of fiction and nonfiction books on a wide array of topics, including A Guide to American Culture and Passover in Prison: Abuses and Challenges Faced by Jews in America’s Prisons. He holds an ABD in American studies from Case Western Reserve (OH) University and has taught at various colleges and universities, including Yale, Kent State (OH) University, The University (CT) of New Haven, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical (FL) University and Daytona (FL) State College. His books are sold worldwide and can be found on Amazon.com, Kindle.com and other sites.