Grant Park

by Leonard Pitts Jr.

Grant Park is a page-turning and provocative look at black and white relations in contemporary America, blending the absurd and the poignant in a powerfully well-crafted narrative that showcases Pitts's gift for telling emotionally wrenching stories.

Grant Park begins in 1968, with Martin Luther King's final days in Memphis. The story then moves to the eve of the 2008 election, and cuts between the two eras as it unfolds. Disillusioned columnist Malcolm Toussaint, fueled by yet another report of unarmed black men killed by police, hacks into his newspaper's server to post an incendiary column that had been rejected by his editors. Toussaint then disappears, and his longtime editor, Bob Carson, is summarily fired within hours of the column's publication.

While a furious Carson tries to find Toussaint—at the same time dealing with the reappearance of a lost love from his days as a 60s activist—Toussaint is abducted by two improbable but still-dangerous white supremacists plotting to explode a bomb at Obama's planned rally in Grant Park. Toussaint and Carson are forced to remember the choices they made as idealistic, impatient young men, when both their lives were changed profoundly by their work in the civil rights movement.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, African American, Thriller, Literature, Contemporary, Historical

400 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2015

About the author

Leonard Pitts Jr. was born and raised in Southern California. He is a columnist for the Miami Herald and won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1992. In 1997, Pitts took first place for commentary in division four (newspapers with a circulation of more than 300,000) in the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors' Ninth Annual Writing Awards competition. His columns on the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman have garnered much attention from his peers and readers alike.

Pitts's column, "We'll Go Forward From This Moment," an angry and defiant open letter to the terrorists, generated upwards of 30,000 emails and has since been set to music, reprinted in poster form, read on television by Regis Philbin, and quoted by Congressman Richard Gephardt as part of the Democratic Party's weekly radio address. He is a three-time recipient of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Award of Excellence, a five-time recipient of the Atlantic City Press Club’s National Headliners Award and a seven-time recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Green Eyeshade Award.

In a career spanning 35 years, Leonard Pitts, Jr. has been a columnist, a college professor, a radio producer, and a lecturer, but if you ask him to define himself, he will invariably choose one word: writer.

He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over the last few months I have noticed myself gravitating toward books written by former Chicago Tribune columnists. Until newsprint went out of style my morning routine was to wake up before anyone else in the house, grab the paper, and read it while eating breakfast. That is still my routine albeit digitally. How times have changed. Leonard Pitts, Jr a syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald has reflected on these changing times in his novel Grant Park. While not about the newspaper specifically, Pitts utilizes the dual timeline to write of a changing world, politically, culturally, and in the newsroom.

It is 2008 on the eve of Election Day. Malcolm Toussiant, who Pitts says is not his alter ego, is tired of white people and the way he has to explain himself to them. Even the most well meaning Caucasian needs an explicit explanation from time to time because s(he) is not black. Toussiant pens a vitriolic column that his editor and superiors refuse to run, but Toussiant is adamant that his column receives newsprint on this specific day, the day that America could conceivably elect a Black man as President. Toussiant goes to the newspaper after hours and enters his column onto the front page against his better judgement, setting up a thrilling 36 hours. This story on its own and Toussiant’s and others’ viewpoints would have made the book more enjoyable for me but there were bumps along the way that slowed and frustrated my reading process.

Readers find out that Malcolm came of age in 1968 Memphis. His father was one of the striking sanitation workers setting up a generational conflict. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr comes to Memphis to aid the workers in the final days of his life. His presence amid the tension is the plot line that allowed me to read the book in its entirety. Malcolm had attended a “white” college but got caught up in the black power movement and was put on academic probation. Returning home, he got a job as a janitor at the Holiday Inn Hotel. While one can sense that Malcolm could achieve great heights, the job pays the bills while his father is striking. Both jobs in King’s eyes are important to humanity and should be given more respect. Pitts desired to portray King the person rather than the persona and pens a poignant scene and dialogue with Malcolm. These moments and the aftermath of the strike and King’s subsequent murder haunt Malcolm for the next forty years, even after he became a renown journalist. His thoughts and dreams would continually take him back to the streets of Memphis and how he could have saved King, setting the country on an entirely different trajectory.

I enjoyed Malcolm’s younger character as well as those of his editor Bob Carson and his love interest Janeka Lattimore. The two attended a Christian college in Mississippi and became wrapped up in the civil rights movement, falling in love in a time and place that was not ready for interracial romance. Losing Lattimore and living his life without her has haunted Carson for the last forty years. The idealism of these youth as well as young reporter Amy Leatherman in 2008 are refreshing to read about. The cynicism of the sixty year old Toussiant, Carson, and Lattimore, not so much. And yet I read on because I needed to see how this book would come to a denouement and find out the thoughts of these characters as election night came to a close. Fourteen years later, we already know what happened, but what did Malcolm, other blacks, and whites think, prompting readers to think like the journalists who the book is centered on.

What slowed down my reading was the introduction of white supremacists. While I have my personal political opinions, the pov of the white supremacist movement has no tread. King’s idealist preaching of non-violence has more leverage to me than the polarization of too many 21st century groups. As much as things have changed too much has stayed the same, prompting Pitts to write that Malcolm’s last forty years had been lived for nothing. What would civil rights pioneers think of some of the movements going on today- too violent? not demanding enough? Sadly we will never know the answer to this pressing question, although biographers have attempted to flesh it out. Because this is fictional, Malcolm and the “good guys” triumph over the white supremacists, yet in the end, he is still tired of having to explain himself.

In the beginning I thought that Grant Park was going to read like a “poor man’s” 11-22-63. Perhaps if that had been the case, the book would have been more enjoyable. One can tell that Pitts wrote more emotionally charged during the scenes that had meaning in his own life- 1968 Memphis, the actual 2008 election results. The white supremacists slowed down my reading of what would otherwise be a quality dual time line book. Although he has now written multiple novels, one can sense that Pitts strength lies as a columnist. If only those days when the newspaper was king still existed.

3+ stars

[Mark Scheel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Pitts writes a nationally syndicated column based in the Miami Herald. I not infrequently disagree with his take on many contemporary domestic issues; however, I always appreciated his excellent command of craft. When his new novel Grant Park came out, I attended his lecture and signing tour here in Kansas City and procured the book from the library. I just finished reading it and must give the man very high marks. His perspective on race relations in America stretching from the early sixties Civil Rights era up to the first election of Obama to POTUS are perceptive, detailed and deep. Not only that but the plot of the novel is action-packed and compelling, comprising a real page-turner. The characters likewise come alive and leap from the page. Regardless of a reader's race, creed or political persuasion, one is going to gain a richer understanding of the what and why of racial tensions in America, both today and historically. Highly recommended for those who want both education and entertainment packed together in one fine read.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Works both as a political thriller and a commentary on black/white relations. I teared up several times while reading it. It also made me laugh out loud more than once. It succeeded particularly well in illuminating my understanding of different points of view related to racial issues. Truly excellent.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for content and plot, the writing style is not quite my thing, but it definitely kept me hooked for the most part.

[Helene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book which features 3 employees of a fictional newspaper in Chicago at the end of 2008 election seems more pertinent now with the election of Donald Trump

[Gerry Durisin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literature at its best lets us step outside ourselves and see the world from another perspective. Pitts has accomplished that with Grant Park, comparing and contrasting America of 1968 and 2008 through the eyes of civil rights activists and the disenfranchised from both ends of the political spectrum. I can only wish that books like this would be more widely read by those who try to push America back to the '50's.

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review coming soon.

[Gavin Armour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grant Park ist jener Ort in Chicago, wo Barack Obama 2008 mit seiner Familie, seinen Helfern und Zehntausenden seiner Anhänger seinen historischen Wahlsieg feierte. Daß ein Schwarzer das Amt des Präsidenten erringen konnte, zudem gewählt von einer deutlichen Mehrheit des Landes, galt lange Zeit als nahezu unmöglich. Mit einer geschickten Kampagne, die sich erstmals massiv der Social Networks im Internet bediente, und mit dem Slogan YES, WE CAN! Gelang das vermeintlich Unmögliche. Viele dachten, dies wäre eine Zeitenwende, Beginn eines neuen, besseren Zeitalters, welches Rassismus und Ungerechtigkeit hinter sich lassen könne. Leider wurden viele im Laufe der acht Jahre, die Obama das Amt inne hatte, eines Besseren belehrt, fanden sich jene leisen Zweifler bestätigt, die dem ehemaligen Senator aus Illinois nicht genügend außenpolitische Erfahrung attestierten und deshalb vermuteten, daß er Probleme bekommen würde. Allerdings ist das eine andere Geschichte.

Die Geschichte, die Leonard Pitts Jr. in seinem 2015 erschienen Roman GRANT PARK erzählt, ist noch geprägt von jenen Momenten, in denen man wirklich glauben mochte, hier geschähe die erwähnte Zeitenwende. In einem weit ausholenden Bogen und verpackt als Thriller, schlägt Pitts einen Zirkel von jenen Tagen in Memphis 1968, die dem Mord an Martin Luther King Jr. vorausgingen, bis zu jenem, an dem Obama triumphierte. In Memphis hatten die schwarzen Müllmänner gestreikt, um bessere Arbeitsbedingungen für sich zu erkämpfen, doch wurde aus Kings Marsch durch die Stadt ein Riot, ein Aufruhr, entfacht von jungen Männern und vielen Schülern, die eher den militanten Versprechungen des „Black Power!“ zuneigten, weil sie der Meinung waren, gewaltloser Widerstand, wie King ihn wieder und wieder predigte, führe nicht zu den gewünschten Ergebnissen. Sie waren der Meinung, Weiße seien schlicht nicht erreichbar für die Bedürfnisse schwarzer Menschen, schon deshalb nicht, weil sie sich in deren Wirklichkeit weder eindenken noch -fühlen könnten. King kam eine Woche nach dem verunglückten Marsch erneut nach Memphis, um diesmal eine friedliche Demonstration anzuführen. Der Rest ist Geschichte. Am Abend des 3. April hielt er eine berühmte Rede, die von vielen anschließend dahingehend interpretiert wurde, daß King geahnt oder gespürt haben müsse, was ihn erwartete; am Abend des 4. April wurde er auf dem Balkon des Lorraine Motel von einem Scharfschützen ermordet.

Der junge Malcolm Toussaint, der nach Memphis zurückgekehrt ist, nachdem er wegen Sachbeschädigung und Aufruf zum Aufruhr von seinem College suspendiert wurde, steht ebenfalls der „Black Power!“-Bewegung nahe und nennt King, wie viele andere, verächtlich „The Lawd“, womit dessen Aura des Predigers verhöhnt wurde. Malcolm gehört zu den Burschen, die dafür sorgen, daß der erste Marsch außer Kontrolle gerät. Sein Vater, einer der Müllmänner, die seit Wochen mit Schildern, auf denen I´M A MAN geschrieben steht, durch Memphis ziehen, verachtet ihn dafür, sich den Protest anderer zueigen gemacht und dann zerstört zu haben. Malcolm gerät ins Grübeln und trifft durch Zufall King in dem Hotel, in dem er kurzfristig einen Job angenommen hat. Die Begegnung prägt ihn zutiefst. Und da er King für dessen ernsthafte Auseinandersetzung danken will, wird er Zeuge des Attentats, ja, er bildet sich gar die kommenden 40 Jahre ein, er habe es verhindern können.

Vierzig Jahre später, am Tag der Wahlen 2008, ist dieser Malcolm Toussaint ein angesehener Kolumnist einer großen Chicagoer Zeitung. Doch glaubt er nicht an Obamas Sieg. Mehr noch: Er hat den Glauben daran, daß sich je etwas in Amerika verändern wird zwischen den Rassen, vollends verloren. Als sowohl sein Chefredakteur, als auch die Herausgeberin der Zeitung seine Kolumne ablehnen, die am Tag der Wahl erscheinen soll, trickst er seinen Chef aus und schmuggelt sie ins Blatt, auf die Titelseite. Dies kostet ihn den Job und auch seinen Vorgesetzten. Dieser, Bob Carson, ein Weißer, war ebenfalls 1968 in Memphis dabei und hat aufgrund der dortigen Vorkommnisse seine Liebe fürs Leben verloren, eine Schwarze namens Janeka Lattimore. Sie verlässt ihn, weil sie nicht glaubt, daß die Zeit für eine Beziehung wie die ihre reif sei. Nun will sie sich ausgerechnet an diesem Tag mit Bob treffen, vierzig Jahre, nachdem sie sich das letzte Mal gesehen haben. Doch nichts an diesem Tag klappt so, wie sich die Beteiligten das vorgestellt hatten, denn Malcolm Toussaint wird von zwei rassistischen Wirrköpfen entführt, die abends einen Anschlag, nachgerade ein Massaker, im Grant Park geplant haben und den stadtbekannten Kolumnisten als Art Symbolfigur dafür nutzen wollen. So entfaltet sich ein Drama, in welchem Rassen-, Klassen- und Generationskonflikte aufbrechen.

Pitts webt ein enges Geflecht aus Figuren, Dialogen, Szenen und Situationen, aus zwei verschiedenen Zeitebenen – erinnert sich der gekidnappte Malcolm Toussaint während seines Martyriums doch an jene Tage im Jahr 1968, die für sein Leben so prägend waren – das den Leser in einen manchmal atemberaubenden Sog aus Spannung, Empörung, Betroffenheit und Unruhe versetzt. Unruhe deshalb, weil es Pitts gelingt, seinen Roman so anzulegen, daß wir nur einer Sache sicher sein können: Der Anschlag, dessen Grundidee verbürgt ist, wird nicht stattfinden. Ob aber die vier Hauptfiguren, die wir im Laufe dieses 4. November 2008 kennen- und trotz all ihrer Schwächen, Widersprüche und auch Gemeinheiten zu schätzen lernen, überleben, ist keineswegs ausgemacht. Und wie es guten Thrillern eben zueigen ist, fiebern wir mit, wollen wir unbedingt, da�� die (Lebens)Geschichten, die an und in diesem Tag kulminieren, zu einem guten Ende kommen. Obwohl also nominell ein Thriller, eine Spannungsgeschichte nach allen Regeln des Genres, tritt dieses Element jedoch stark in den Hintergrund zugunsten einer wirklich tiefen und für eine weißen Leser extrem schmerzhaften Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema Rassismus.

Pitts Roman ist von Wohlwollen getragen, weil Malcolm Toussaint durch das von ihm nicht erwartete Wahlergebnis eines Besseren belehrt wird, wie es scheint. Seine Kolumne, die der Auslöser für die Probleme in der Zeitung ist, ist getragen von seiner Frustration nach 40 Jahren Kampf gegen die Ungleichbehandlung. Sie drückt seine Resignation, ja Trauer, darüber aus, scheinbar nicht gehört zu werden, scheinbar nichts mit Worten bei seinen weißen Mitmenschen auslösen zu können. Daß Obama gewählt wird, ist für ihn eine Überraschung. Allerdings keine Genugtuung. Beide Ereignisse – Kings wegweisende Rede und Obamas Sieg – stehen im Roman in einem direkten Bezug zueinander, werden als Wendepunkte einer historischen Bewegung behandelt. Pitt gelingt eine dialektische Verschränkung, wenn er seinen Hauptprotagonisten gerade diesen Tag wählen lässt, an dem er, eine Wahlniederlage antizipierend, seinen Schlußstrich unter die Beziehung zur weißen Bevölkerung setzt. So großartig Obamas Sieg auch gewesen sein mag, so wichtig er symbolisch für die schwarze (und auch die liberale) Bevölkerung der U.S.A. gewesen sein mag – er barg in sich auch den Keim einer großen Enttäuschung. Mit dem Wissen, wohin diese Präsidentschaft führte, und daß sie auch die eines Hasardeurs wie Trump möglich machte, liegt Toussaint eben nicht gänzlich falsch mit seiner Annahme, daß Schwarze und Weiße wahrscheinlich nicht mehr konstruktiv zueinander finden können.

Heute, im Jahr 2019 und im nunmehr dritten Jahr der Präsidentschaft Donald Trumps, wird Toussaints ursprüngliche perspektive wieder relevanter, mehr noch – es gibt nicht wenige, die behaupten, daß Obamas Präsidentschaft, auch, weil sie für viele enttäuschend war, zu dem wieder erstarkenden Rassismus in den U.S.A. beigetragen habe. Das Argument ist natürlich nur dann stichhaltig, wenn man den Menschen die Eigenverantwortung abspricht. Ob der einzelne meint, Menschen aufgrund ihrer Hautfarbe, Ethnie, Religion oder letztlich auch Klasse hassen zu müssen, sollte definitiv in dessen Verantwortung liegen. Und die Art, wie Malcolm Toussaint mit seinen Peinigern umgeht, seine Ansprache an sie, drückt genau das auch aus. Bei all seiner Verbitterung über den Alltagsrassismus, über den strukturellen Rassismus, der denen, die ihn ausüben, meist nicht einmal auffällt, weiß er doch, daß diese beiden Typen – ein drogenabhängiger Junge aus der Unterschicht, des sogenannten White Trash, und ein an Akromegalie[1] Leidender, der wahrscheinlich nicht mehr lange zu leben hat – im Grunde arme Schweine sind, die sich mit ihrem Rassismus einen vollkommen irrationalen Bereich geschaffen haben, in dem sie sich überlegen fühlen können. Tatsächlich empfinden sie diese Überlegenheit aber nur solange, wie ihr Opfer gefesselt und ihnen ausgeliefert ist. Pitts erfasst die psychologischen und sozialen Hintergründe des Rassismus ebenso, wie es ihm gelingt, die kulturellen Hintergründe differenziert darzustellen.

Die Psychologie derer, die im Leben wenig bis nichts haben und deshalb meinen, sich auf letzten Bastionen – Hautfarbe, Nation, Religion – zurückziehen zu müssen, um an irgendetwas festhalten zu können, das ihnen vermeintlich Halt gibt, auch wenn sie zu all diesen Merkmalen nicht das geringste beigetragen haben, stellt der Roman hervorragend aus. Zugleich erkennen wir zumindest in dem Junkie Dwayne aber auch jenen tiefen Hass auf andere, der rational nicht mehr zu begründen ist. Da wird ein Rassekrieg gegen Schwarze ausgerufen, die angeblich selber Rassisten sind und die Weißen unterdrücken, eine Art Notwehr sozusagen, da werden angeblich jüdische Medien angegriffen, die diesen Schwarzen helfen, die Vorherrschaft der Weißen zu untergraben usw. Man kennt die Argumentation aus einschlägigen Dokumentationen. So wie man auch jene nur noch im Glauben zu begründenden Argumente kennt, die weiße Rasse sei aus sich selbst heraus anderen überlegen, von Gott und Natur so gewollt. Wie tief dieser Wahn reicht, macht uns ein Buch wie dieses deutlich. Schmerzhaft deutlich.

Doch geht es darüber hinaus auch dorthin, wo es für jene Leser schmerzhaft wird, die sich keines eigenen rassistischen Denkens bewußt sind. Die Genervten, die, die das Thema „satt“ haben und der Meinung sind, eigentlich sei doch mittlerweile alles Bestens. Bob Carson entspricht diesem Typus. Er zeigt sich genervt von Toussaints dauernden Angriffen und dessen Beharren darauf, daß der Alltagsrassismus keineswegs überwunden ist. Ja, Carson geht schließlich so weit, sich selbst als Rassisten zu bezeichnen, eben weil er all das nicht mehr hören könne im 21. Jahrhundert. Doch auch seine Geschichte wird uns nahegebracht, seine Liebe zu einer schwarzen Frau aus dem Süden und die bittere Erkenntnis, daß ein Weißer vielleicht gar nicht verstehen kann, wo der Unterscheid im Empfinden und der Wahrnehmung liegt. Der junge Bob Carson fühlte sich von Janeka verraten, er leitet aus dieser unglücklichen Liebe ab, weshalb er nie eine langfristige Beziehung im Leben eingegangen ist. Der alte Bob Carson fühlt sich – angesichts von dessen Tricksereien vielleicht nicht einmal ganz zu unrecht – von Malcolm Toussaint verraten, der eine astreine Karriere als preisgekrönter Journalist hingelegt hat und immer noch nicht zufrieden scheint. Carson muß ebenfalls durch das Martyrium dieses Tages gehen, der auch für ihn physisch schmerzhafte Erfahrungen bereithält, um besser zu verstehen, von welch unterschiedlichen Standpunkten ein erfolgreicher schwarzer und ein erfolgreicher weißer Mann auf das Thema Rassismus blicken.

Der eigentliche Verdienst des Romans liegt letztlich darin, sowohl die gesellschaftspolitische wie die Ebene des Thrillers miteinander zu verschränken, sodaß ein spannendes Buch entsteht, das sich aber eben auch sehr gut als Beitrag zu einem in Amerika allzeit aktuellen Thema lesen lässt. Mehr noch: Es gelingt dem Autor, die Ebene so miteinander zu verbinden, daß die eine die andere bedingt, sie gleichsam ineinander aufgehen. Und das ist hohe literarische Kunst. Man wartet gespannt auf weitere Werke von Leonard Pitts Jr.


[1] Akromegalie ist eine chronische Erkrankung, bei der die Extremitäten, im Extremfall auch der gesamte Körper stetig weiter wächst.
,

[Alretha Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A writer friend of mine told me about Leonard Pitts’ book, Grant Park. The first thing that struck me was the title. Who is Grant Park? I’m a California girl, so I had no idea Grant Park is a place and not a who. It’s a large park in Chicago. Actually, I should have known this because it’s where President Obama held his Election Day victory speech, and in this historical novel, there’s a plot to murder President Obama if he’s elected.

The book opens with a riveting scene featuring Dr. Martin Luther King at the Lorraine hotel and his infamous assassination. Pitts, with his masterful descriptive writing, pulls me in and doesn’t let me go. I soak up every word and my mind is flooded with images of King on that fateful day. Then I’m introduced to the protagonist—Malcolm Toussaint who when the story shifts to the present day, I learn is a sixty-year-old columnist. But at this moment in time he’s a young man who wants to tell Dr. King that he’s returning to the “white school” he had left in a huff, full of anger and disgust with the system and the state of the nation. But before he has a chance to do so, Dr. King is shot by a gunman that Malcolm actually sees but fails to say anything. That failure to act haunts him his entire life.

The book then shifts to present day where Malcolm is now a 60-year-old disgruntled columnist for a Chicago newspaper. Not unlike his younger self—he’s tired of the system and the injustices faced by people of color. He writes a scathing column that the powers that be at the paper refuse to publish. However, Malcolm surreptitiously gets access to his boss’ computer and approves the column that runs in the paper the next day resulting in him and his boss being fired. What Malcolm doesn’t plan on is his subsequent kidnapping by two bumbling racists. From there the book takes off with the speed and force of a fighter jet.

I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough wondering what was going to happen to Malcolm. The story beautifully woven moves from the sixties to 2008 and back seamlessly. Malcolm is joined by several other pivotal characters, including his boss Bob who was fired from the paper and young reporter named Amy and Bob’s college sweetheart, Janeka.

Grant not only tells a story that’s engaging and enlightening, but he brilliantly uses his characters to shed a klieg light on race relations through their dialogues and self-reflection and analysis. As a reader you actually come away from the book with a better understanding about why African-American’s feel that they have been the victims of injustice and why whites feel they shouldn’t be blamed. Basically, you get both sides of the coin.

If you’re looking for a suspenseful, action-packed, superbly written novel that will stimulate you intellectually and emotionally, you must get a copy of Grant Park.

[Candy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is a book supposed to do? Take us to a world that is not ours, entertain us, thrill us, scare us. Grant Park did all that for me. Leonard Pitts write a novel about race relations and personal relations between races in the US taking me to understanding, questioning my understanding and more questions. His novel takes place in 1968 Memphis with the trash employee strike that brought MLK to Memphis and his subsequent assassination. We skip forward to current day Chicago on the eve of Obama's first election and a journalist basically giving the finger to white people after an exemplary career for a fictional Chicago newspaper. The story follows his journey from a young man in Memphis to his success in Chicago. It is also a love story, a kidnapping, a violent interaction with White Supremacists. Although fictional, it is based on a plot to kill Obama that was thwarted by the FBI and brings in real characters such as MLK. This book is from 2015 but seems even more important to read now.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible read! I picked this up without knowing the synopsis after I read The Last Thing You Surrender by Pitts. Grant Park takes place mostly in Chicago on the eve of the 2008 Presidential Election. Malcom Toussaint is a Black journalist whose recent editorial has landed him in hot water. In the 1960's, he had protested and marched with King. 40 years later he is tired and frustrated by the continued issues with racism. Purely as a thriller, this would be an exceptional reading experience. The pacing and intensity kept me turning pages and stealing extra minutes to read. This is so much more, though, than a thriller. It's also a thought provoking look at racism and society- both in the 1960's at the time of King's assassination and in 2008 on the eve of Obama's election. There are so many anti-racism book lists going around right now -- this book should be on every single one of them. I would put this book in everyone's hands right now and would love to see book groups reading it.

[Emma B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. The author does a great job of incorporating flashbacks from 40 years earlier to show how the protagonist got to the point he's at today. The story takes place on election day in 2008, the day Barack Obama is elected president, when a black newspaper journalist slips a scathing editorial into the Chicago paper, and is kidnapped by two unscrupulous characters who plan to assassinate the president-elect and blow themselves up in the process. The story started off with a bang and kept my interest. Leonard Pitts is an awesome writer.

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thought provoking look at black and white relations in America. Flashes back and forth between 1968 Memphis sanitation strike leading up to MLK's assassination there and election day 2007 as Barack Obama is elected as President. Multiple characters, both black and white, provide insight to struggles relating to race in ways that are very relevant to today's climate in America. I think this book will stay with me for a very long time!

[Mary Larrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Thought provoking. Leonard Pitts at his finest!

[Tom N · Rating 4 out of 5]

GRANT PARK, by Leonard Pitts, Jr., is a fascinating story of race relations between whites and African Americans, and the white supremacy and racism that all too often goes along with it, alternating between the civil rights era of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Malcolm Toussaint, a sixty-year-old renowned African American journalist for the Chicago Post, who lives in his prized mansion and who has won two Pulitzer Prizes, is disgusted, tired, and discouraged by yet another report of an unarmed black man who has been shot by the police. He is annoyed by the lack of progress that has been made in relations between whites and blacks since the civil rights era of the 1960s, when he was an avid activist in the fight for equal rights. After receiving yet another racist e-mail from one of his readers, he writes a rather short, to-the point, scandalous editorial response, but it is rejected by his editor, Bob Carson, who is a white male who was also an activist during the civil rights movement. Infuriated by this dismissal, Malcolm uses Bob's computer password and hacks into Bob's computer to publish the article anyway. This sets off a firestorm of reactions once the paper is published and released to the public. Knowing that his actions will result in his termination, Malcolm packs up his office. However, as he is leaving the office, he is kidnapped by two unlikely, yet dangerous, white supremacists hell-bent on detonating a bomb in Grant Park when Barack Obama is supposed to appear after he wins the nomination for president. The following day, Bob Carson and the rest of Malcolm's co-workers come into the office, only to find out that Malcolm's article was posted in the newspaper. Bob is found responsible for giving Malcolm his computer password at some point, which allowed him to hack into Bob's computer, and is fired. Bob is furious with Malcolm and is determined to hunt him down to exact revenge, but Malcolm is nowhere to be found. It is later discovered that he has been kidnapped. Time is ticking for Malcolm to be found. At the same time, Bob is dealing with the shocking reappearance of Janeka Lattimore, a political black activist and his one true love from the time that he was an activist in the civil rights movement. The book jumps back and forth between Malcolm meeting Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 until he witnesses King's assassination in Memphis; Bob and Janeka meeting through the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the romance that sparked but never fully ignited; and the 2008 election of Barack Obama and the plot by two white supremacists to detonate a bomb in Grant Park, where Obama will be giving his acceptance speech after winning the presidential nomination. As Election Day nears, Malcolm and Bob are forced to look at the choices the made as visionary, restless young men back in the days of the 1960s civil rights movement, when both of their lives were radically changed. Now, forty years later, they are confronted with a volatile opportunity to make peace with their pasts, before it's too late.

This is an intriguing work of historical fiction which addresses real-life topics, such as race relations, racism, and the all-too-present white supremacy, which all still exist to this day, calling into question, "what has really changed in the last forty years or so?" As the book portrays, clearly not much has changed and we, as a nation and as a people, have a long way to go to live in peace with our fellow man. As a warning, the author does not shy away from using some colorful language to emphasize the points he is trying to make (and in this day and time, it is hard to find a book that doesn't use this kind of language), so please keep this in mind. We highly recommend this thought-provoking book to anyone who is passionate about issues of social justice and equal rights for all people. A truly great book.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Reading Reality

Grant Park is a story about looking back and looking forward. It’s about staring into the future with the eyes of the past, and wondering if the world that you hoped for is going to be anything close to the world that you get.

It’s about hope, and it’s about change. And it’s also about fear. Not just about what you fear, but what everyone else fears about you.

Two men’s careers are at the same crossroads. Malcolm Toussaint, an opinion columnist for the fictional Chicago Post, writes a column that his editor, Ben Carson, believes is too incendiary to publish. After being turned down by every person up the chain of command, in the middle of the night Malcolm uses Ben’s computer and Ben’s password to insert his column into the next morning’s front page.

Malcolm’s column appears on the morning of November 4, 2008. It is Election Day, and Malcolm’s column is a venting of his anger, but mostly his exhaustion. He is tired of all the platitudes that white people use to cover their hidden racism, and he firmly believes that in spite of all the polls, Barack Obama will lose the election because white people will not vote for a black president in the privacy of the voting booth, no matter what they tell pollsters.

He is tired of the countless indignities that have been visited upon him all of his life, and he is overwhelmingly sad that the hopeful future he saw during the protest years of the late 1960’s seems to be dead. He’s pushing 60, and when he looks back at himself in 1968, he sees a young man full of hope that was ultimately defeated.

Malcolm knows that publishing that column will kill his formerly Pulitzer Prize winning career. What he doesn’t know is that his newspaper, failing slowly as all newspapers were failing in 2008, will use his editor Ben Carson as their scapegoat, and fire him too.

When Malcolm disappears on the morning of November 4, Ben Carson finds himself questioning who and what he is. He protested in 1968 too. He marched with Martin Luther King, too, coincidentally at the same march that Malcolm did. But as the scapegoat, Ben is bitter and blames his problems on Malcolm, wondering whether in his blame of the one man, he has become the racist that he always feared lurked under his skin.

As the day progresses, Malcolm and Ben both relive their very separate versions of 1968. A year when Malcolm went back to college at King’s urging, and Ben lost the love of his life over their differint reactions to the color line their relationship had attempted to bridge.

But while they look back, they are sitting in very different positions. Malcolm has been kidnapped by a couple of crazed white supremacists with a big agenda and almost no sense whatsoever. And Ben finds himself pursuing Malcolm and his story, because the woman he loved and lost has returned to him, and been kidnapped by those same crazies.

It’s all supposed to come together, or fall apart, at the Obama victory rally that Malcolm hoped for but never expected to happen and that has captors fear above all else.

Escape Rating A+: This story kept me up all night. Seriously. I read it until I finished and then couldn’t stop thinking about it. I still can’t.

It feels like there are at least three threads moving through this story. One is the current event of 2008. A second is the past, specifically the events leading up to April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. And the third is how Malcolm, Ben and even Janeka, the woman who broke Ben’s heart all those years ago, feel and think when they look back and remember.

The kidnapping plot seems insane from beginning to end, at least in practical terms. The kidnappers are not the most ept criminals on the face of the planet, or even in the city of Chicago. However, and it is a huge however, the white supremacist mantras that they spout are very, very frighteningly real. We’ve all heard them, straight out of the conservative corners of the internet and the media. These nuts believe that Blacks, Jews, homosexuals, Muslims, Hispanics and every other group have somehow “stolen” the country from white Christian men like themselves and that they need to rise up in violence to get it back. And they intend to strike the first blow at Obama’s victory rally. They are all the more frightening because they seem all too plausible, even downright possible, in their hate and desperate need to act on that hate.

As the present day events unfold, the Malcolm and Ben look back at their almost-shared past. They are both around 60, they were both college students in 1968, and they are reflecting back on who they were then, what they hoped for, and how different the future is that they got. They also look back at how much more hopeful the world seemed back then. The question is, was it more hopeful because they were young, with their future all before them, or did things really seem more possible than was actually achieved?

This is fiction that feels all too real. I remember that night, watching the election results come in and realize that we as a country had made a step forwards, but also wondering at the time what the backlash would be. We’re living in that backlash now, and it’s ugly. The author hints at the end that the characters fear something like this is coming, even though they can’t see the details from where they are. They just know that this kind of movement forwards never comes without a price.

The story ends with a sense of resigned hope. We have to find a way to make things better for everyone, together, because all of the alternatives are unthinkable. The frightening part, for those reader at least, is that there are some people thinking them.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leonard Pitts is one of my all time favorite Op Ed columnists; I frequently agree with him, but he makes me think even when I don't agree. This is the first of his fiction that I have read and it is a thought provoking and exciting read.

The protagonists are Malcolm Toussaint, an African American Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for a Chicago paper, and Bob Carlson, his white editor. The scene shifts between Memphis in 1968, the sanitation workers' strike and the King assassination, and Chicago in 2008, the eve of the Obama election. Both men were in Memphis; Toussaint's father was in the march, Malcolm had dropped out of college to come home, Carlson was a college student civil rights worker. The descriptions of the scenes on the street, the marchers, the cops, the crowds, is really vivid. The generational differences between Malcolm and his father in their views of black activism and its possible outcomes ring true.

The Chicago story begins with Malcolm's writing a column describing how sick he is of white folks' bulls..., and total lack of understanding. When Bob refuses to publish it as too inflammatory, Malcolm sneaks into the building as the paper is going to press and changes the front page layout using Bob's password. Before the fallout from the column has even gotten started, Malcolm is kidnapped by a pair of delusional white supremacists who plan on planting a bomb in Grant Park on election night to kill Obama and his supporters.

The story is fast moving and full of action, but the main appeal of the book for me is the breadth and depth of its portrait of the fraught history of the races in America, the clarity with which Pitts lays out the many ways in which we misunderstand each other in spite of our hopes and our good intentions.

[Joni Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I found the writing to be compelling - intelligent and conveying wide ranges of emotion. The story itself was well paced and I felt like I couldn't read fast enough, eager to turn the page and see what would happen next. It's a gripping thriller. But it's more than that. Disillusioned and outraged by the news of another black man gunned down by police, prize winning columnist Malcolm Toussaint writes a column that his paper won't print. So he hacks his boss's computer and get's it on the front page. Both he and his boss are summarily fired as the paper struggles to save face. And then Malcolm vanishes while his boss Bob Carson is out for revenge.
I admit to being an avid reader of many of Pitt's Op-Ed pieces through the years. He jockey's back and forth between election eve 2008 in Chicago and a black protest march in Memphis 1968. Reflections of a young man's anger and a young man's optimism are mixed with the thoughts of men who are older, weary, and disappointed in their world and themselves. Both a liberal white person's confusion and the freak and hate red of a white supremacist are explored. How Malcolm and Bob resolve their present in view of their past is the story but it feels like much more: this book echoes the national conversation about race that so many of us are having.

[Revae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grant Park jumps between two time periods - 1968 and 2008. The main character, Malcolm Marcus Toussaint is present during two important times in American History - the election of Barack Obama and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In each event, Malcolm is called to be heroic, but he is at his wit's end with racism. Can he step up in 2008 like he couldn't in 1968?
Grant Park is an interesting read. It calls to question how much has changed racially in the 40 years since King's assassination. It is well-written, and I did not expect anything less from Pitts. It took a few chapters for the plot to pick up, though. I can't say that this is my favorite book by Pitts. However, if you are a fan of his work, then it's worth reading.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subject is timely. It starts off in 1968 and quickly moves to current times, then goes back and forth. The themes of racial hatred, racial hope and redirected dreams are powerful and relevant. I did the audio version and loved every minute of it. As I listened to a subplot about how ridiculous racial hatred can get, it was countered with why love and acceptance are more powerful than hate. Lots of good stuff in this book. It was as if it was ripped from the headlines. Listening to this audio book then switching on the news, wow!

[Julia Prater · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very compelling and timely read. Couldn't put it down and can't stop thinking about it. Pitts explores the raw emotion of racism and relationships in very personal stories from both sides and across four decades. I commend Columbia's One Book One Community for the selection and encourage all to read. It should foster much valuable discussion and greater understanding of each other.

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The compelling thing about this book for me was the recounting of historical events. And, it was a timely read because I have been watching the Ken Burns series on Vietnam. Pitts worked the two time lines well, never leaving the reader confused.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Pitts has expertly woven two time periods 1968 & 2008 together to explore race relations. Race is looked at from several different view points. He has done all this is a page turning thriller based on actual historical events. Highly recommended.

[Andre(Read-A-Lot) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Some hokey scenarios in Grant Park but mostly hues close to the real and Pitts leans heavily on his career as a journalist to deliver a light thriller with a historical leaning.

[Carol Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book club selection for our group.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is weirdly prescient. A thriller set on the eve of Obama's nomination as president-elect, the plot thickens as a pair white nationalists try to prevent the occurrence by means of an Oklahoma City style truck bomb. Obama's victory celebration in Chicago's Grant Park is the target. The author ties the event to the murder of MLK jr. through the eyes of a disbelieving and disgruntled newspaper columnist Malcolm Marcus Toussaint. Some of the story is just as obvious as that name; yes he was a revolutionary in his past, and yes, he's now too tired to believe in the "Obama revolution". The pair of nationalist are either meth addicted or mentally deficient. But we've come to realize in the years since that white nationalism is hardly the acts of random crazies but a national scourge, so the threat is definitely under played in the story. The author manages to fit an awkward inter-racial love story into the mix (why?) and half of it is devoted to flashbacks of the events surrounding the murder of MLK in Memphis. Add the inter generational strife of the older MLK supporting parents and the radicalized "Black Power" youth and you've got a pretty good tale. One that with a little tweaking to include a racist president and his supremacist minions could be pulled from the headlines.

[Tess Blanch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deserves all the praise and stars!

On the eve of the 2008 US election, disillusioned columnist Malcolm Toussaint posts an incendiary column that had been rejected by his editors in their newspaper. After which, Malcolm disappears and his editor, Bob Carson, is fired as a consequence. While Carson looks for Malcolm and deals with the reappearance of his long lost love, Malcolm is abducted by two white supremacists plotting to kill Obama’s possible proclamation at Grant Park. Both of them struggles with their pasts when their younger selves are shaped by their involvement in the civil rights movement in 1968 during Martin Luther King final days in Memphis.


This is such a compelling read, page-turner that keep me reading and wanting to finish right away. Honestly, when I signed up for this buddy read, I have no idea what this is about. I seldom read summary, I just go by the title, author and bit of gut feel. Turns out, it’s such a good one! It’s historical fiction with nail-biting suspense. The author is such a good story teller that he will engage you right from the start. Sometimes when a story starts strong, it such a feat to finish strong but the author did it so well.

What’s so disheartening to read is the things and the issues that happened before in the 60s are very much the same things and issues that are happening now. But in all of these, there is still HOPE for humanity.

These lines strikes me to think if there is really hope - “So the only thing we are left is to wrestle with white people, to contend with them, try to make them see what they can’t see or won’t see. We have to trust that something in our humanity will touch something in their humanity so they’ll finally be able to recognize us as brothers. We can’t give up on white people because if we do, we give up on ourselves.”

[John Bunyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The switching between time periods (1968 to 2008) does not bother or confuse me, but at the beginning of the book it does seem to make the pace uneven. Then again at the end I felt the same.
Pitts is attempting to accomplish a lot with the very broad scope of subjects and issues of civil rights, white supremacy, race relations, what has changed in 50 years, and exploring the characters in the book, most specifically Malcolm and Bob. It took me time to get into it all but I felt he did a great job in the end.
Pitts leans heavily on the idea of being “tired”. Malcolm is tired, MLK is tired, white supremacists are tired. It’s a little overplayed but I get what he’s saying and it is ultimately effective.
The white supremacists who kidnap Malcolm are over the top dumb and incompetent. Sadly, there are intelligent, capable people in the world who are equally evil and wrong. But it would be hard to include even more characters here. Plus, as Pitts points out in the final notes, the plot is the book is similar to an actual plot against Obama.

[Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compulsively readable novel of three time periods. Malcolm Toussaint sneaks a blistering editorial (stating that he he is tired of white people's bullshit) onto the front page of the Chicago newspaper on the day of Obama's election. Flashback chapters look at Malcolm's youth when he met Martin Luther King, Jr. His white editor, Bob, is another point of view character. We see Bob's present day as well as his youth when he fell in love with a Black woman.

All of the time periods were equally well written and the suspense builds in each chapter.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

So thought-provoking.

Told in flashbacks between 1968 and the eve of President Obama's election, Grant Park addresses many aspects of racism. Honestly, I think Pitts could write copy for the back of cereal boxes, and I'd read it. 5/5 stars. This will be one of my favorite reads of the year.