Join Dr. James E. Laws and Toni Ford in conversation about his novel, The Patriarch. 

It is 1959. In a small town in segregated Virginia, the races collide in the courtroom and the
bedroom. A young Black girl is raped by a member of a powerful white family. The Black family
patriarch fights the Klan, the judicial system and members of the Black Church, while keeping
his own desires hidden. Secrets seep from the walls of the homes and funeral parlor; all
revealing the sex and murder that connect the races at a time when interracial and same-sex
relationships were taboo and illegal.

The author, Dr. James E. Laws, Jr. received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He earned his Doctorate in Higher Education
Administration from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He taught the
sociology of Racism for 10 years and has also taught at Mary Washington University, Virginia
State University and George Mason University.

Dr. Laws is a former ballet dancer with the Richmond Ballet as well as a musician. As a trained
baritone, James has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras and at various venues in
the United States and Europe. James lives in Washington, DC.