The Philosophy of Multiracial Identity and Self Realization

<P>A child of the Civil Rights Era born below the Mason-Dixon Line, Charles Byrd eloquently shares his awe-inspiring story of self-discovery and revelation through a lens of spirituality. This important book chronicles the tense family dynamics, powerful social experiences, and thought-provoking interracial philosophy of a man whose national advocacy helped persuade the federal government to allow the 10 percent of the population at that time to self- identify as more than one race on the 2000 U.S. Census.</P><P>This literary retrospective includes references to nine of Byrd’s many essays published on the former Interracial Voice website he founded in the 1990s and other national publications. He ruminates on a variety of subjects from former President Barack Obama’s preferred racial identity to the Black community’s resistance to the multiracial identity. Byrd serves as a docent through his personal history of American interracial thought from the mid-century Civil Rights era in pre-Loving Abingdon, Va., to present-day New York City, pointing to the segregated schools and cemeteries along the way to his conclusion that he was unwilling to relinquish any part of his blended heritage.</P><P>This book is a deeply intellectual look at rarely discussed points of view in the late 20th century movement to recognize mixed-race people as they chose to be seen.</P>