Ray Anthony Shepard

Six heroes challenge the racial barriers of their day

Ona Judge wanted more than the best job an enslaved person could have, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman challenged why some people are masters and others enslaved, Ida B. Wells exposed post-slavery brutality, Martin Luther King Jr. was the key voice to overturn Jim Crow, and Barack Obama changed modern-day racial attitudes.

For author Ray Anthony Shepard A Long Time Coming is highly personal, a chronicle of the times of his grandparents, parents, and himself. Through a series of fast-paced, fact-based, lyrical stories, he celebrates the lives of these six important Black Americans who fought against racism, and he reflects on how much has changed since our country’s founding and how much still needs to be done. Shepard ends with hope—with a call to action, a call for change to come.

“A Long Time Coming is an unflinching, thoughtful, instructive, and beautiful rendering of the African American journey from slavery to freedom and beyond. 

Students of all ages will benefit from reading it.”—RANDALL KENNEDY, Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School and author of Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture