Books like Incognegro

\ Strange FruitSouthern Trees bear a strange fruit.Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.Black body swinging in the southern breeze.Strange fruit hanging from the Poplar trees.Pastoral scene of the gallant South.The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth.Scent of Magnolia sweet and fresh.And the sudden smell of burning flesh!Here is a fruit for the crows to pluckFor the rain to gather for the wind to suck,For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop.Here is a strange and bitter crop.Abel Meeropol writing as Lewis Allan, 1937\ Zane Pinchback is an African-American journalist who passes for White. He uses his physical appearance to go “undercover” in the South so that he can report on lynchings and their perpertrators. \ “Since White America refuses to see its past, they can't really see me either. Add to that a little of Madame C.J.s magic and watch me go invisible. Watch me step outside of history. Assimilation as revolution. That's one thing that most of us know that white folks don't. Race doesn't really exist. Culture? Ethnicity? Sure. Class too. But race is just a bunch of rules meant to keep us on the bottom. Race is a strategy. The rest is just people acting playing roles.”\ Incognegro is in part based on the life of Walter Francis White, the Executive Secretary of the NAACP from 1931 until his death in 1955. During his tenure he worked to desegregate the armed forces after World War II, established the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan to expose those involved with lynchings and other human rights violations. Incognegro is more than just a period piece. It is a mystery-noir that delves into race relations, gender issues, family, love and friendship.