Jack Sullivan is a rookie reporter at the Messenger newspaper in Richmond, Virginia. When he's assigned to the local police beat, he never expects to uncover a network of crime amid the systemic racism enshrined in the city’s Confederate history.
As the young journalist pulls at the threads of a story that spans from a record high in city homicides to interstate arms running, he is forced to confront the prejudices that color his young life and career.
Inspired by the author’s own reporting in the wake of the march by White supremacists in Charlottesville and the murder of George Floyd, Harmony in Black and White is an unflinching newsroom drama and an examination of the impact of race and implicit biases on our media, law enforcement, and the systems that govern them.
"Ruberry constructs the tripod of fiction with precision: a strong storyline, a cast of well-conceived and deftly executed characters, and imaginative phrasing."
—JAY STRAFFORD, Richmond Times-Dispatch
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ABOUT
Award-winning journalist William Matthew Ruberry survived a Category 5 hurricane to write this book, escaping Sanibel Island, Florida, in September 2022 just ahead of Hurricane Ian with its 150-mph winds and 7-foot wall of water.
Ruberry, his wife, and two big dogs fled with two suitcases and a supply of dog food. The storm devastated their home and destroyed most of their possessions, including the computer Ruberry used to write the book. Nearly a year would pass before Ruberry retrieved his manuscript from the cloud and resumed work on it.
The family now resides on the Northern Neck of Virginia where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay.
Ruberry was born in Chicago and grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Alexandria, Va.
He worked as a reporter for the Greenville News in South Carolina, then as an award-winning reporter, columnist, Washington correspondent, and editor for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
He has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and master’s degree in journalism and public affairs from American University in Washington, D.C.
Photo by Michelle Farrell
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