American · b. 2000
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton traces the history of a Black New Orleans family across three generations in "A Kind of Freedom" (2017). From 1944 to 2010, her characters navigate systemic racism while pursuing their own versions of the American dream. The novel won the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Sexton's subsequent work continues to explore the long shadows of slavery and segregation on contemporary Black life.