Debra J. Dickerson

A profoundly courageous and insightful memoir, An American Story documents the events that have shaped journalist Debra Dickerson's conscience. The daughter of former sharecroppers, Dickerson never imagined she would emerge from her squalid St. Louis neighborhood to become an acclaimed journalist with a Harvard Law degree. A constant reader and a straight-A student, nevertheless Dickerson's lack of confidence kept her from accepting the many colleges offers she received. Instead she enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, quickly rising through the ranks. In spite of her success, she recognized within herself deep-seated conflict at being a working class black woman living in a white man's world. Her path to self-acceptance is at the heart of this refreshing narrative.… (more)

A devastatingly honest & revealing self-portrait.
I had never heard of Debra Dickerson before running across this book in a local thrift store. And I guess she's not exactly "famous." But considering her background and a wrenchingly poor and abusive childhood in East St Louis, perhaps she should be. I don't think this book was a bestseller, but considering the quality of the writing and the gripping story it tells, it should have been. Dickerson credits the US Air Force for pulling her up out of poverty, but after reading the whole story, any astute reader will see it was her own indomitable will to succeed that did the job. In fact, her portrayal of how the AF treated her after she was raped by a fellow airman in Korea, is not at all a flattering look at the "old-boy" military system. (If you want to know more about this, try reading Kayla Williams' Iraq war memoir, LOVE MY RIFLE MORE THAN YOU.) If there is one indisputable catalyst to this success story then it would have to be the author's love of books and her insatiable thirst for knowledge - of all kinds. At several points in her memoir Dickerson calls herself an "autodidact," a term you may not even find in many dictionaries. It means self-taught. In her case, it should - and perhaps does - mean self-motivated. Dickerson is a voracious and eclectic reader, a person of encycopedic tastes and interests. These things, perhaps more than anything else, have made her the person she is, and probably also finally set her on the path to being a writer. And she is an excellent one. She spares herself nothing in this blazingly honest examination of her life. She doesn't always come off as admirable, but she tries her best to be truthful. The only shortcoming of this book, if indeed there are any, are the gaps about the "boyfriends" she mentions from time to time. These men are strangely absent from her story. Perhaps this was done purposely to protect their privacy, but it does tend to leave the reader wondering just what kind of relationships this at times ruthlessly ambitious woman might have enjoyed with these mostly nameless men. Dickerson understands this side of her personality; she even calls herself an "achievement junkie." Her achievements are many, that's for sure. There is much here about the plight of growing up black and poor in America, but it is about as even-handed and fair an assessment as you are likely to find today. Whether you are black or white, I recommend this book highly.… (more)