Souls for Sale: The Diary of an Ex-Colored Man - Tapa dura

Cultural Writing. African American Studies. SOULS FOR SALE: THE DIARY OF AN EX-COLORED MAN is a riveting portrayal of a second generation advocate's experience in the post civil rights era of the 1980s. Anthony Asadullah Samad offers this retrospect through the eyes of a young advocate's effort to give back to his community, when he takes up membership in the local branch of the NAACP. As a lead official of the Los Angeles NAACP (Vice President 1985-88, President 1988-89), Samad (whose name was Anthony Essex at the time) discovered that the progressive civil rights agenda has been supplanted by inner race conflict and leadership succession battles within the organization, and a cultural compromise that came with the Reagan era social and economic reconstruction (1981-1988). Samad is currently the host of the Urban Issues Forum of Greater Los Angeles, a monthly public affairs forum that discusses critical issues impacting American's urban cities.

Samad is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at East Los Angeles College and President of Samad and Associates, an urban affairs, strategic planning firm specializing in urban policy, economic and sustainability development. With Master of Arts degrees from University of Southern California and Claremont Graduate University, Samad is currently completing doctoral studies at Claremont Graduate University's School of Politics and Economics.