For some, the election of America's first black president marked the victory of a long-fought struggle for racial equality.
But the a new book by Duke professor Joseph R. Winters asserts that the battle for racial equality is not one of uninterrupted progress, but is instead a dynamic and evolving one marked with deep pain and melancholy. Winters traces a literary history that demonstrates the pain and struggle of African-American experiences and argues that America is not "post-racial."
Host Frank Stasio talks with Winters about "Hope Draped In Black: Race, Melancholy and the Agony of Progress" (Duke University Press/2016).