Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color - a Journey from Prison to Power by Gaines, Patrice - 1994

New York: Crown Publishing Group. Fine in Fine dust jacket 1994. First Edition. Hardcover. Marfree, acidfree stated 1stEd; not written-in, remainder, reprint or ex-library. Mail SAMEDAY! An award-winning Washington Post reporter explores the twisted path she traveled to find her place as a confident black female in a world that values whiteness and maleness. By the time she was 21 years old, Gaines was the mother of a baby daughter and was in jail on a drug charge. She found herself gravitating to men she considered powerful: hustlers and criminals. This is the story of how she turned her life around to become a proud parent, an esteemed reporter, and a woman comfortable with her ethnicity. YA Gaines's autobiography reveals a life filled with despair, peril, and finally hope. She was the oldest of six siblings in a financially stable African American family in the 1950s. Her father was a career Marine and her mother was the mainstay of the home. Gaines was not happy and blamed institutionalized racism and the emotional coldness of her father for much that went wrong in her life. She was raped; 0; 9.25 x 1.25 x 6.50; 295 pages .