About this item
Barack Obama's speech on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches should have represented the culmination of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of racial unity. Yet, in Fracture, MSNBC national correspondent Joy-Ann Reid shows that, despite the progress we have made, we are still a nation divided - as seen recently in headline-making tragedies such as the killing of Trayvon Martin and the uprisings in Ferguson and Baltimore.With President Obama's election, Americans expected an open dialogue about race but instead discovered the irony of an African American president who seemed hamstrung when addressing racial matters, leaving many of his supporters disillusioned and his political enemies sharpening their knives.
About the Author
Joy-Ann Reid is the host of "AM Joy" -- a twice-weekly political talk show that airs weekend mornings on MSNBC. In addition to her hosting duties, Joy serves as a political analyst, appearing on NBC News and MSNBC programs including "Meet the Press," "Hardball with Chris Matthews," "The Rachel Maddow Show," "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," "All In with Chris Hayes" and "Andrea Mitchell Reports." Joy writes a weekly column for The Daily Beast and is the author or editor of two books: Fracture, Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide (William Morrow, 2015) and We Are the Change We Seek: the Speeches of Barack Obama (Bloomsbury, 2017) . Joy was previously the host of "The Reid Report," a daily program that offered Reid's distinctive analysis and insight on the day's news. Before that, she was the Managing Editor of theGrio.com, a daily online news and opinion platform devoted to delivering stories and perspectives that reflect and affect African-American audiences. She joined theGrio.com with experience as a freelance columnist for the Miami Herald and as editor of the political blog The Reid Report. She is a former talk radio producer and host for Radio One, and previously served as an online news editor for the NBC affiliate WTVJ in Miramar, FL.During the 2004 presidential campaign, Reid served as the Florida deputy communications director for the 527 "America Coming Together" initiative, and was a press aide in the final stretch of President Barack Obama's Florida campaign in 2008. Reid's columns and articles have appeared in the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, South Florida Times and Salon.com. She and her husband own a documentary film production company, that is currently working on its maiden project.Reid graduated from Harvard University in 1991 with a concentration in film, and is a 2003 Knight Center for Specialized Journalism fellow. She currently resides in Brooklyn with her husband and family. Follow her on Twitter @JoyAnnReid and on Facebook at "Joy Reid Official."
