Recorded before a live audience at the Capri Theater in North Minneapolis, Lissa talks with author Karen Nance about her latest book Ethel Ray: Living in the White, Gray, and Black, published by In Black Ink 2024
Ethel Ray Nance was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, where her family lived a life filled with marginalization, prejudice, and racism. She experienced constant comparison to whiteness—a place that held no space for her Black Southern father, William Henry Ray, or her white Swedish mother, Inga Ray.
Ethel Ray: Living in the White, Gray, and Black is a biography and coming-of-age story of Ethel and of her family’s life before, during, and after the horrific lynching of three young Black circus workers—Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie—on June 15, 1920.
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Only four percent of all books published in the US are about people of African heritage with very few publishers of African Heritage nationally. In Black Ink is a publishing arts initiative that provides opportunities for communities that have been disenfranchised historically, and continue to be presently.
Rich History. Bright Future. Support the Capri Theater
Built in 1927, the Capri is the last of 13 theaters that once graced the north side of Minneapolis. Prince performed one of his first concerts there in the early 70’s. Explore a little of our rich history, and bright future, through our video library. Enjoy!
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Ethel Ray Nance was an African American activist and writer. During the 1920s, she broke racial and gender barriers in Minnesota, participated in the Harlem Renaissance movement, worked as a secretary for the National Urban League, and contributed to Opportunity magazine. In later decades, she went on to work for the NAACP and the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society.
Karen Nance talks about her family’s proximity to the 1920 Duluth Lynchings. Learn More about the lynchings, the timeline, people, Incarcerations and more.
W. E. B. DuBois Speaks at St. Mark A.M.E. Church Ethel Ray was instrumental in securing W.E.B. Dubois to come to St. Marks AME Church which solidifies the NAACP Chapter in Duluth.
Check out Author Nance’s Podcast Connecting with Karen Nance
What is Karen Nance reading?
I Respectfully Disagree: How to Have Difficult Conversations in a Divided World by Justin Jones-Fosu
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Black Market Reads is produced by The Givens Foundation for African American Literature in partnership with iDream.TV. Black Market Reads is made possible through the generous support of our individual donors and the voters of Minnesota, through the Minnesota State Arts Board with support from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.