Ethel Ray: Living in the White, Gray, and Black

Ethel Ray: Living in the White, Gray, and Black by Karen Felecia Nance tells an amazing rites of passage story about Ethel Ray, one of the early African American residents in Duluth. Be a part of history as Karen Nance’s book chronicles the early life of her grandmother, Ethel Ray Nance for the very first time. Find out how a pivotal figure of the NAACP who worked closely with W.E.B. Du Bois, and the first colored woman to be part of the Minnesota Legislature, fought through racial injustice and the trials of being biracial during Minnesota’s most violent era for Black people.

This biography tells the story of Ethel Ray and her family during her younger years during the early 1900s before most of her great accomplishments. Ethel Ray depicts the trials she faced during her education in a mostly white environment, the tension between whiteness and Blackness that existed among her and her siblings’ search for identity, and perhaps most importantly, her family’s experience to the Duluth Lynchings in 1920. This book achieves all of this through journal entries, striking prose, haunting poetry, and chilling imagery of the history of violence that connects Ethel Ray’s early experience to today in Minnesota’s history.

Author Karen F. Nance has worked as an attorney specializing in criminal defense and child support law. She is an advocate for children and adults with special needs. She also provides support to domestic and international adoptees. Karen is a licensed private investigator, a restorative justice facilitator, a mediator, and author.