Author Talks: I Am Nobody’s Slave with Lee Hawkins

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We welcome you to our conversation with journalist and author Lee Hawkins as he talks to us about the examination of his family’s legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience in this riveting memoir, I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free. 

I Am Nobody’s Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.

About the Author: Lee Hawkins was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist as a lead reporter on a series about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 at the Wall Street Journal, where he worked for nineteen years. He has received several fellowships, including The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, the Alicia Patterson Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism, the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellowship for reporting on child well-being. Hawkins is a five-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute to Excellence” Award. He is the creator and host of the podcast “What Happened in Alabama?” and lives in the New York City area.