Nathan McCall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nathan McCall (born 1955) is an African-American author who grew up in the Cavalier Manor section of Portsmouth, Virginia.

As the son of a Navy man, McCall also grew up in various locations, such as Morocco and Norfolk, Virginia. After serving three years in prison, he studied journalism at Norfolk State University. He reported for the Virginian Pilot-Ledger and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before moving to The Washington Post In 1989. He has dedicated his career to improving race relations in the United States.

In his first book, Makes Me Wanna Holler, McCall provides a detailed story of his life and the hardships he experienced growing up with racial profiling and class difference. He also details an account where he and some friends severely beat up a person who was biking through their neighborhood simply because he was white. His second book, What's Going On used personal essays to discuss some larger issues such as social, cultural, and political tensions that affect the modern day United States.

After the success of his books, McCall was in demand as a speaker. He left The Washington Post for the lecture circuit. Today he continues to write while holding a position at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia as a journalism teacher.