Author Jeh Allen has announced the launch of BLACK: The Bear on Our Backs, the first book in his Black Novel Series. The book addresses issues and concerns central to being Black in America during an era of extreme political polarization.

The main character in the series, Jason Black, is an elite, Black American sprinter who is vying to compete for gold in the 100-meter dash at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games. But Jason’s preparation for these games is interrupted when he is forced to defend himself against Roscoe Baker, the white security guard that held him at gunpoint during a late-night response to a neighborhood disturbance.

Fearing for his life, Jason stabs Baker with his sling blade knife – which he always has at the ready – and when he is apprehended after several weeks on the run, he is the one charged with attempted murder, with Baker offering up a Standing My Ground defense.

Jason nervously awaits the announcement and subsequent start of a jury trial that, if lost, would make him the new face of black criminality. However, while lodged at the Black-owned and operated Sojourner Vista Resort and Conference Center, Jason has an epiphany about what he and other Black athletes, intellectuals and entrepreneurs can do to reconstruct black labor today for the jobs of tomorrow.

But standing in his way is Malcolm Stillwell, a 76-year-old white businessman from Manhattan, New York, who wants to use interest in Jason’s court case to sow racial division and hate as he vies for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. Unbeknownst to Jason, securing the United States presidency is nothing more than a start for Stillwell, as he and agents of the shadowy Confederate States of America escalate their infiltration of the Republican Party in their ongoing effort to use governmental powers to resurrect the Confederate South.

BLACK: The Bear on Our Backs is available for purchase on Amazon.

About the Author
Jeh Allen is a Creative Writer whose views and opinions are informed by his reading of seminal texts by prominent authors of all racial hues, as well as his lived experiences. A persistent optimist, he is always holding out hope that humanity’s better angels will prevail. He calls the Washington, DC/Metropolitan area home.

The BLACK Novel Series is being written as a critical literary response to attempts to silence black Progressive voices and impair the American populace’s access to reliable sources that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, love, justice and peace.

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