{"product_id":"wallace-terry-ray-e-boomhower-9780826370150","title":"Wallace Terry: A Reporter's Journey from Selma to Saigon to Bloods","description":"\u003cb\u003eAward-winning biographer Ray Boomhower tells the story of a journalist who spent his life smashing barriers, from his childhood in Indiana and his Ivy League education at Brown to his reporting on the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South in the 1960s and, finally, covering what he described as \"the biggest story in the world\" of his time, the Vietnam War.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePioneering Black journalist Wallace Terry risked his life on the battlefield writing for \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003emagazine during the Vietnam War. While in Vietnam, he captured the voices and experiences of Black soldiers and used the insights he gained to produce \u003ci\u003eBloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans\u003c\/i\u003e. The book remains a classic reflection of a war that fractured US society and cost the lives of nearly fifty-eight thousand Americans. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Before risking his life on the front lines, Terry became deeply involved in reporting about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the United States. \"It was a story that I passionately cared for because it was going to affect me, my family, my children, and generations of Black people to come,\" said Terry. Working for the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, he wrote the first newspaper series about the Nation of Islam, during which he interacted with Malcolm X, who sheltered him from harm when his stories upset some members of the movement. He also grew close to those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for equality, including Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., who became godfather to Terry's eldest son. Making civil rights his focus gave him the opportunity to report on such seminal events as the Birmingham campaign, the March on Washington, and the Selma to Montgomery marches. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e During his two years covering the Vietnam War, Terry traveled overseas to conduct numerous interviews with Black fighting men--soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines--that he later used as the basis for \u003ci\u003eBloods\u003c\/i\u003e. He sought with his work to topple the conviction that \"white soldiers are invincible and black soldiers are invisible.\" Terry faced numerous challenges, including rejections from publishers who believed the public did not want to read about Black veterans from the conflict. Finally published in 1984, \u003ci\u003eBloods\u003c\/i\u003e became a bestseller and remains a landmark work of military and oral history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Boomhower has written the first-ever biography of one of the first Black national correspondents to be hired in the overwhelmingly white mainstream media, a reporter whose name belongs with the greats in American journalism. Wallace Terry lived a life filled with danger and betrayal, scoops and cover-ups, while immersing himself in events that changed the course of US history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ray E. Boomhower\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0826370152\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780826370150\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e High Road Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/06\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.02lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.90d","brand":"Ray E. Boomhower","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48454416040191,"sku":"9780826370150","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bc72e342-c92a-497e-aaeb-5f62cf2f5f4c.jpg?v=1777306104","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/wallace-terry-ray-e-boomhower-9780826370150","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}