Running Against the Wind: A Black Arkansan's Pursuit of His Dreams

by Collins Hemingway

"Running Against the Wind" describes the life of Bill Brooks, a Black man who grew up impoverished in the racially hostile town of Little Rock, Arkansas. He made his way from the infamous Central High School into the bigger world and eventually lived a prosperous life. It is an ordinary American story in that Brooks became neither the president of the nation nor a drug dealer in the ghetto. It is an extraordinary story in that he overcame poverty and prejudice to go further than many contemporaries did, regardless of color, while also never losing his sense of self, his heart, or his optimism for his family and his country. He has, however, faced repeated roadblocks and setbacks as a Black man in a predominantly white culture. More than once, even in upscale neighborhoods, he has barely avoided becoming a tragic headline like too many other Black men in America.

His life demonstrates a plain, hard that a Black person's pursuit of happiness in America still requires unusual courage, patience, faith—and luck.

"Running" builds out from Brooks's life to include his predecessors, his family, his social set, and the Black community of Little Rock overall. It's a vibrant account of a largely self-contained small group within a larger white world. The book includes personal accounts of slavery, Jim Crow, and continuing discrimination. It contrasts Brooks's family legacy with the ugly antecedents of the author, a white man, whose ancestors had enslaved Black people and were leaders in the Ku Klux Klan.

As a whole, this is one of the untold stories of Black the first generation of African Americans to make significant headway in civil rights as they attempted to integrate American society after 250 years of slavery, a hundred years of legalized oppression, and ongoing, widespread discrimination. When this generation is gone, the stories of their lifelong struggle to gain ground will be gone.

342 pages, Hardcover

Published July 24, 2025

About the author

I have a passion for creative investigation--digging deep into the heart and soul of characters, while also engaging them in the complex and often dangerous world in which they have a stake. I have an abiding regard for courage in the face of adversity, which shows in my work.

I seek to be precise, accurate, and intellectually rigorous but also to write with the language of the heart. I want to explore all that makes people what they are as complete but fallible human beings, while testing their mettle in every way possible.

My nonfiction shows the same respect for clarity of thought about matters of substance, complexity, and nuance.