Inspired by family stories, Harriette Gillem Robinet presents African-American history in fictional narratives. Born on July 14, 1931, in Washington D.C., Robinet is the daughter of teachers Richard Avitus and Martha (Gray) Gillem. She grew up in Virginia. Her family is Roman Catholic. During summers, she played at Arlington, Virginia, where her paternal grandfather had been a slave on Robert E. Lee's plantation.

Robinet's great-aunt Anice told her about experiencing both suffering and happiness as a slave and how she and other slaves enjoyed outsmarting whites. These oral histories later shaped Robinet's fiction.

As a child, Robinet was affected by segregation which caused her to suffer unjust circumstances and humiliation. She rode in the back of buses, being forced off if she did not quickly give her seat to a white passenger. She was harassed at public libraries and for riding her bicycle through a...