The Search for Black Mecca // (Pre-Order, March 23 2027)

From theWashington Posts first race and ethnicity reporter, a poignant investigation into the aftermath of the Great Migration, the promise of a Second Great Migration, and what future Black communities could look like across America in this eye-opening and thoughtful study, a mix ofThe Warmth of Other SunsandHow the Word Is Passed.

Since the 1990s, demographers have been documenting a new Great Migration: millions of Black Americans leaving Northern and Western cities for the South their parents and grandparents fled during Jim Crow. Huge numbers of Black people have been moving to Memphis, Houston, Charlotte, and other booming metropolises in the hopes of recreating the vibrant communities their grandparents once left. Have they found what they were looking for? Is it possible for Black Americans to have community, economic prosperity, and safety all in one place? And if so, where?

In the Search for Black Mecca, Emmanuel Felton examines how these questions are playing out in real lives today, going into the homes of Black Americans who are weighing what they want and where they hope to find it. He identifies three archetypesThose Who Stay, Those Who Leave, and Those Who Build Something Newand reveals the costs and benefits of each decision, while seeking answers to deeper questions regarding communal responsibility, whats needed to make Black neighborhoods thrive, and how to manage the fact that white people are often threatened by Black success. He also unravels his own familys migration story through the lives of his two grandfathersa prominent New Orleans dentist and a troubled musician who migrated to Oakland, California.

Through these stories, Felton crystalizes our understanding of what it means to findor to create our own meccas: radical spaces for Black joy, freedom, and imagination, even when the external world tries to take those places away.

Emmanuel Feltonis the race and ethnicity reporter at theWashington Post. Previously he worked atBuzzFeed News, where his reporting on January 6 through the eyes of Black police officers guarding the Capitol that day was used during Trumps second impeachment hearing, and at theHechinger Report, where he produced an award-winning investigation into the federal governments failure to enforce school desegregation orders. He teaches journalism at Hunter College and Yale University.

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper (March 23 2027)
• Language:English
• ISBN-13: 9780063324183
• Product Dimensions:6.1 x 1.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds