The Trouble of Color // An American Family Memoir

An “intimate and searching” (Natasha Trethewey,New York Times-bestselling author ofMemorial Drive) memoir of family, color, and being Black, white, and other in America, from “one of our country’s greatest historians” (Clint Smith, #1New York Times-bestselling author ofHow the Word is Passed).

Martha S. Jones grew up feeling her Black identity was obvious to all who saw her. But weeks into college, a Black Studies classmate challenged Jones’s right to speak. Suspicious of the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, he confronted her with a question that inspired a lifetime of introspection: “Who do you think you are?”

Now a prizewinning scholar of Black history, Jones delves into her family’s past for answers. In every generation since her great-great-great-grandmother survived enslavement to raise a free family, color determined her ancestors’ lives. But the color line was shifting and jagged, not fixed and straight. Some backed away from it, others skipped along it, and others still were cut deep by its sharp teeth.

Journeying across centuries, from rural Kentucky and small-town North Carolina to New York City and its suburbs,The Trouble of Coloris a lyrical, deeply felt meditation on the most fundamental matters of identity, belonging, and family.

Martha S. Jonesis the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, professor of history, and a professor at the SNF Agora Institute at the Johns Hopkins University. A prizewinning author and editor of four books, most recentlyVanguard, she is past copresident of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and has contributed to theNew York Times,Atlantic, and many other publications. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

• Publisher: Basic Books (March 04, 2025)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 336pages
• ISBN-13: 9781541601000
• Item Weight: 1 pound
• Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• BISAC Categories: Biography & Memoir, History, Politics, Society & Current Affairs