I Wonder What My Father Knew

Toni Morrison is a National Treasure: "Song of Solomon should be required reading for all African-American boys. How did you know what is in our heads?" asks Ira Levi from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"That was a leap for me. I really wanted to do that book, about the education of a middle-class black man, about his ancestry, and I couldn't. And then my father died, and it was earthshaking for me. I remember saying to myself, I wonder what my father knew about these men? And I have to tell you, I felt access. I knew I could get there if I thought about him."