One More River to Cross: Black & Gay in America
Against a backdrop of civil rights and the black experience in America, Boykin interviews Baptist ministers, gay political leaders, and other black gays and lesbians on issues of faith, family, discrimination, and visibility to determine what differences--real and imagined--separate the two communities. Boykin points to evidence of African and precolonial same-sex behavior, as well as figures like James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin, to dispel the myth that homosexuality is a "white thang," while his research suggests that blacks are less homophobic than whites, despite the rhetoric of rap and religion. With stories from his own experience as well as that of other black gays and lesbians, Boykin targets gay racism and black homophobia and suggests that conservative forces have substituted the common language of racism for homophobia in order to prevent a potentially powerful coalition of blacks and gays.
By portraying what it means to be black and gay, One More River to Cross offers an extraordinary window into a community that challenges this country's acceptance of its minorities, both racial and sexual.
About the Author
Keith Boykin is a CNN political commentator, New York Times best-selling author, and a former White House aide to President Bill Clinton. His upcoming book, Race Against Time: The Politics of a Darkening America (Bold Type Books, 2021), examines the raging conflict between America's emerging black and brown population and its dwindling white majority.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith has taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York and at American University in Washington, D.C. He is a co-founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition and a Lambda Literary Award-winning author of four books.
Keith was a co-host of the BET Networks talk show “My Two Cents,” starred on the Showtime reality television series “American Candidate,” worked as an associate producer of the film “Dirty Laundry,” and has appeared on numerous TV shows, including BET’s “Being Mary Jane.”
Born in St. Louis, Keith has lived in 12 cities, visited 48 of the 50 United States, and traveled the world.
He lives in New York City.