Ben Jealous is former president of the NAACP and a former candidate for governor of Maryland in 2018. He was born and grew up in California after his African-American mother and white father left Baltimore. Interracial marriage was not legal in Maryland until 1967.

Many of the stories Jealous tells in his latest book, including the summers he spent with his maternal grandparents in West Baltimore, are rooted in Maryland. The book is called "Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing."

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