"Black was best looking. ... Ebony was the best wood, the hardest wood; it was black. Virginia ham was the best ham. It was black on the outside. Tuxedos and tail coats were black and they were a man's finest, most expensive clothes. You had to use pepper to make most meats and vegetables fit to eat. The most flavorsome pepper was black. The best caviar was black. The rarest jewels were black: black opals, black pearls.”

― Ann Petry

Ann Petry was an African American writer, journalist biographer who wrote about Black people in small towns, cities, and beyond. Her first novel, The Street, which was published in 1946 portrayed a working class Black woman who dreamt of leaving poverty and racism. She wrote about Black people who dreamed, Black people who were disillusioned, and Black people who travelled. She was trained as a pharmacist and did not let her dream of being a writer get squashed. So, she was unabashedly confident when she wrote. The Black struggle for dignity is grounded in writing our own stories, creating new lexicon to challenge racism not only in the United States, but globally. We do this with grace, style, and typewriter in hand.