Incognegro by Mat Johnson

By Jeff Rivera 

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Incognegro is today’s Featured Book of Color. This graphic novel was written by Mat Johnson with artwork by Warren Pleece. This book lands the reader into early 20th century when lynchings were common throughout America. This was so commonplace that most of the press ignored the fact that they even occurred.

This changed when a few reporters from the North wanted to expose the problems. There were some light-skinned African-American men that traveled to the South, passing for white. They started out on this treacherous assignment by going “incognegro.”

One particular reporter from the New Holland Herald, Zane Pinchback, returns to Harlem after a particularly bad trip to the South. He is then sent on a new assignment to investigate the brutal murder of a white woman in which his brother is accused of committing.