Yvette McKoy

Set in nineteenth-century New Orleans, the story depicts the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Colour, a dazzling yet damned class caught between the world of white privilege and black oppression.

In the 1920s, the rights of American workers to join a labor union was still considered an open question, and African-Americans were routinely denied their civil and economic rights. 10,000 Black Men Named George, the title, refers to the fact Pullman porters were often called "George" by white passengers, which was considered a racial slur.

A former actress trying to break into directing tests her skills with a town’s annual Christmas Eve courtroom production in which the true authorship of the famous poem “A Visit from St. Nick” is debated.