PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 1, 2010

My Times in Black and White: Race and Power at The New York Times is the moving story of the hard-won rise and devastating fall of journalist Gerald M. Boyd, who rose from childhood poverty to become the first black managing editor of the New York Times.

After a career of many firsts, Boyd shattered the color barrier of the white establishment’s most exclusive media giant. But his dream of running a major newspaper came to an abrupt end when he was forced to resign in 2003 in the wake of scandal over a reporter who had plagiarized and fabricated news stories. Like Boyd, the reporter was black, and despite the lack of any such relationship between them, Boyd was deemed to be the reporter’s mentor, an assumption based solely on race.

Boyd’s tale, a candid discussion on race and journalism, provides a rare inside view of power and behind-the-scenes politics at the nation’s premier newspaper during one of its most tumultuous periods. My Times in Black and White is an inspirational personal account of a journalist who covered presidents, documented extraordinary social and cultural challenges, led his team to an unprecedented number of Pulitzers, endured a shattering fall from grace, and ultimately discovered the true value of his life.

Published by Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press

Gerald M. Boyd completed a draft of his memoir before his death in November 2006. This site  is dedicated to his book and his legacy.