W. Ralph Eubanks

Biography

W. Ralph Eubanks is the author of Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi's Dark Past (Basic Books), which Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley named as one of the best nonfiction books of 2003. He has contributed articles to the Washington Post Outlook and Style sections, the Chicago Tribune, Preservation, and National Public Radio. A graduate of the University of Mississippi (B.A.) and the University of Michigan (M.A., English Language and Literature), he is a recipient of a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and is also a fellow at the New America Foundation. Ralph lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and three children and is Director of Publishing at the Library of Congress.

Ralph has just completed a new book, The House at the End of the Road: A Story of Race, Identity, and Memory, which will be released May 19, 2009, by the Collins imprint at HarperCollins.

HarperCollins Publishers

The New America Foundation

Selected Works

Article

Affirmative Action and After
Now is the time to reconsider a policy that must eventually change. But simply replacing race with class isn’t the solution.

At Ole Miss, a Valedictory to the Old South
A look at the changing mind of the South

DNA is Only One Way to Spell Identity
A Look at the Meaning of Racial Labels

Before He Had His "Dream," King Wrote a Letter
A look at the significance of Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail

I Know What He Means
An analysis of the comments made by Trent Lott at Strom Thurmond’s Birthday Party in 2002.

Book Review

George Washington's Slaves
A review of Scott Casper's "Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon"

Fathers and Sons
A Review of Richard Wright's A Father's Law

Whiteness Falls
A review of Nathan McCall's "Them: A Novel

Mississippi Yearning
A Review of Doug Marlette's Magic Time

Essay

Still Learning From Dad
A Son Relishes Counsel That Comes in Dreams

Separate But Unequal
Has Capitol Hill, barricaded and fenced off, lost its small-town appeal?

A Trip Back Home for a Lesson in Justice
A summer trip to Mississippi provides the author and his children a look at Freedom Summer 1964

Are We Putting Reading and Democracy at Risk?
Fewer of us are reading, and our leaders may have scared even more people away from the pastime.

Memoir

Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi's Dark Past
A gripping memoir of coming of age in Mississippi in the Civil Rights era.

Quick Links

May, 4, 2004, commentary on NPR's "All Things Considered"

Interview on NPR's "Talk of the Nation"

Interview on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show

E-mail the author

Authors Guild