In his new book, Robert Reid-Pharr argues that black gender and sexuality have always played a crucial role in questions of black national identity. He identifies the origins of a "national" African American literature in the founding of the Black press in 1827 and the beginnings of a novelistic tradition in the antebellum period. Reid-Pharr shows how state conventions, churches, newspapers, and novels -- predominantly aimed at Northeastern Black communities -- were integral in shaping the ideal of the black family.