Clyde W. Ford

In his thought-provoking and heartbreaking memoir, Think Black (Amistad), Hurston/Wright Legacy Award-winning writer Clyde W. Ford tells the story of his father, the first black software engineer at IBM, revealing how racism insidiously affected his father’s view of himself and their relationship. While Ford remained at IBM, it came at great emotional cost to himself and his family, especially his son Clyde. Overlooked for promotions he deserved, the embittered Ford began blaming his fate on his skin color and the notion that darker-skinned people like him were less intelligent and less capable – beliefs that painfully divided him and Clyde, who followed him to IBM two decades later.