Between the Covers

Unbound. A collection of two books, *Soul Sister* and *Black White Sex*, by journalist Grace Halsell from the library of Dr. John A. Kenney, Jr., the African-American doctor who helped darken Halsell’s skin so she could live undercover as an African-American woman. *Soul Sister* is Inscribed: “For Jack Kenney, A marvelous doctor and best of all - a friend. With deep esteem and appreciation for going on the journey with me, all the way. For you - and your family, Grace Halsell November 1969.” In addition are six loose photographs, several of the Kenney family. The books are both near fine first editions with very good dustwrappers with creasing and wear along the edges of one and the other with a tear and sunning at the spine; the photographs are about fine with some light edgewear.

Halsell was a journalist and writer who worked in President Lyndon Johnson’s White House from 1965 to 1968 before writing the first of 10 books. Inspired by John Howard Griffin's exposé *Black Like Me*, Halsell focused on marginalized populations which resulted in her disguising herself as various persons of color to document racial prejudice firsthand: "I wanted only to open my mind, my eyes, my pores to the dilemma of race in America, and to share those experiences without making claims to the discovery of fresh truths about ourselves… I was cast in a twin, paradoxical role of oppressor and oppressed."

This archive came from Dr. Kenney, one of the first African-American doctors to be trained in dermatology with a focus on skin diseases affecting non-white populations. His father John Kenney, Sr. was the personal physician of both Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. Kenney, Jr. received his medical graduate from Howard University and studied dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania. He later taught at Howard, as well as consulted with the State Department and served as director of the American Academy of Dermatology. When Grace Halsell died in 2000 at the age of 77, she left the bulk of her $800,000 estate to Howard University in Dr. Kenney's honor.

Also included are photographs: a portrait of Kenney, Sr. and an unidentified Caucasian woman, both taken by photographer M. Baer Salov of Montclair, New Jersey; a photo reproduction of an enlargement of the Kenney family at the beach with Booker T. Washington and his family; an aerial view of the campus of Cleveland City Hospital where Kenney, Jr. interned; a group shot of white doctors posed outside a hospital; and an inscribed photo of an unidentified man that has been mounted on a wooden plaque.

An interest archive of material from a notable black doctor and a white journalist who worked together to help understand the relationships between their two races during the turbulent middle part of the 20th Century.

Item #425525