Born in the rural South at a time when African Americans did not enjoy the full rights of American citizenship, James Haskins absorbed the hard realities of life around him, translated them into a fascination with fact, and, as an adult, became the author of over one hundred works of nonfiction. "It has always seemed to me that truth is not just 'stranger than fiction,' but also more interesting," Haskins explained in an essay for Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS). Haskins also cites the desire to provide information as another reason for writing only nonfiction, and further explains his commitment to facts by writing: "I was born into a society in which blacks were in deep trouble if they forgot about the real world. For if they daydreamed and were caught off-guard, they could pay dearly."

Demopolis, Alabama in 1941, the year of Haskins's birth, was...