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An “assiduous scholar and absorbing writer” (New York Times) confronts the limits of the historian’s craft in this powerful memoir of family, color, and being Black, white, and other in America

Martha S. Jones grew up feeling her Black identity was obvious to all who saw her. But weeks into college, a Black Studies classmate challenged Jones’s right to speak. Suspicious of the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, he confronted her with a question that inspired a lifetime of introspection: “Who do you think you are?”

Now a prizewinning scholar of Black history, Jones delves into her family’s past for answers. In every generation since her great-great-great-grandmother survived enslavement to raise a free family, color determined her ancestors’ lives. But the color line was shifting and jagged, not fixed and straight. Some backed away from it, others skipped along it, and others still were cut deep by its sharp teeth.

Journeying across centuries, from rural Kentucky and small-town North Carolina to New York City and its suburbs, The Trouble of Color is a lyrical, deeply felt meditation on the most fundamental matters of identity, belonging, and family.

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On Sale: Mar 4, 2025
Page Count: 352 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9781541601000

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Martha S. Jones

About the Author

Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. The prizewinning author and editor of four books, most recently Vanguard, she is past copresident of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and has contributed to the New York Times, Atlantic, and many other publications. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Martha S. Jones

About the Author