Brent staples
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Brent Staples (1951- present) is an editorial writer for the New York Times. He first went to college at Widener College and graduated with a B.A. with honors in 1973. He was assisted by a special program at Philadelphia Military College and Penn Morton College that equipped him with the skills he needed to succeed. He later received a Danforth Fellowship for graduate study at the University of Chicago where he obtained his PhD in psychology in 1977. He is noted for his memoir, Parallel Time: Growing up In Black and White, which won the Anisfield Wolff Book Award. Staples is a humble man that does not like to be marked for African-American progress. He believes in the importance of individual efforts to make progress. He believes that African-American journalists should not be confined to writing about race alone but about all aspects of the world. His articles reflect that belief by covering topics from racial classification to his neighbor’s tree, from elementary schools to college, even from the American revolutionary war to Hip-Hop media.
Parallel Time: Growing Up In Black and White This memoir is a “classic American story” according to Staples. The book explores themes such as race, family, class, men, and women. It tells of his life from the small industrial town of Chester, Pennsylvania to his time at the University of Chicago. His hometown began with glory as the first capital of Pennsylvania but has been shrinking since the 1960’s because of the loss of the automobile factory and the naval shipyard. The city is known for its poverty. It was ranked last among the state’s 501 districts a few years ago. Staples contributes his ability to leave his desolate hometown to the “watchful Black neighborhood women” that kept an eye out for justice and hygiene.
References: Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White. - book reviews Essence, June, 1994 by V.R. Peterson http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_n2_v25/ai_15237109 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester,_Pennsylvania
Modern Journalists: Brent Staples http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/modern_journalist/staples.htmll http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/brent_staples/index.html
