This African-American Life : A Memoir

From his early work as the first director of the Black Coalition of New Haven during the Civil Rights Movement to his tenure as president and CEO of the National Urban League, Hugh B. Price’s varied and highly successful career has been unwaveringly dedicated to social justice and racial equality. Price writes about growing up in a neighborhood near Howard University in Washington, attending a newly integrated high school, and studying at Amherst and Yale Law School. He also traces his forbearers, among them Nero Hawley, who fought at Valley Forge under George Washington; George and Rebecca Latimer, who escaped slavery by stowing away on a boat and traveling north as master and slave; and Lewis Latimer, who worked with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison.

Price comes from a long line of radicals, and his own actions demanded change. He defended affirmative action, helped repair relations between the black and Jewish communities, and pressured the federal government to combat police brutality and racial profiling. “People who believe a problem can be solved tend to get busy solving it,” William Raspberry wrote in the Washington Post. “Hugh B. Price is a believer.” This African-American Life chronicles not only Price’s experiences and achievements, but also a lifetime of creating opportunities for others to succeed.