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Victoria Christopher Murray: Harlem Rhapsody
May 16, 2025 · 56 min

Victoria Christopher Murray joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about HARLEM RHAPSODY, which is her first solo historical novel (she has written New York Times bestsellers with her co-author, Marie Benedict). She explains why she chose to write about the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and shares her extensive research, which included reading issues of The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, and her wonderful finds of letters and other works that helped to bring this story together.

Victoria speaks of admiring Jessie Redmon Fauset and her education and career success, as well as what happened later in her life. She is enthusiastic about how much has been achieved, as just 50 years ago, Black people had been enslaved and didn’t have access to education.

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Art Credit: Tom Fitzgerald

Edited by Jordan Redd Productions