Trymaine Lee’s new book on the effects of gun violence on Black life in America begins before there was Black life in America.
A Thousand Ways to Die takes the reader on a journey that begins when Portuguese “explorers” jump-start the trans-Atlantic slave trade by introducing firearms into West Africa. As the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist weaves his way through slavery, past Jim Crow to George Floyd, we see America becoming a violent fiend, addicted to the violence and power that only a gun can provide.
Lee sat down with Michael Harriot to talk about his new book, the hidden costs of gun violence and how it specifically affects Black communities.
A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America is available today in bookstores everywhere.
