The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir

by Martha S. Jones

An “assiduous scholar and absorbing writer” (New York Times) confronts the limits of the historian’s craft in this powerful memoir of family, color, and being Black, white, and other in America

A child of the civil rights era, Martha S. Jones grew up feeling her Black identity was obvious to all who saw her. But in Jones’s first semester of college, a Black Studies classmate challenged her right to speak. Suspicious of the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, he confronted her with a question that inspired a lifetime of “Who do you think you are?”
 
Now a prizewinning scholar of Black history, Jones delves into her own family’s past for answers, only to find a story that archives alone can’t tell, a story of race in America that takes us beyond slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights. Ever since her great-great-great-grandmother Nancy emerged from bondage in 1865 determined to raise a free family, skin color has determined Jones’s ancestors’ lives. But color and race are not the same, and through her family’s story, Jones discovers the uneven, unpredictable relationship between the two.

Drawing readers along the shifting and jagged path of America’s color line, The Trouble of Color is a lyrical, deeply felt meditation on the most fundamental matters of identity, belonging, and family.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History, Race, Biography Memoir, Biography, American History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2025

About the author

I am a writer, historian, and legal scholar who also teaches at the Johns Hopkins University. I am also the prize-winning author of several books. My latest - THE TROUBLE OF COLOR: AN AMERICAN FAMILY MEMOIR - is a big departure for me, turning my historian's lens toward my own family and myself. I've gone deep into who, as Americans, we call family and how that has changed across generations. It's a story that runs from slavery and sexual violence and anti-miscegenation laws to Jim Crow and civil rights. Throughout, my questions are about how color and the line it is said to draw across our lives and our national landscape is a legal fact and an everyday fiction.My past books include Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020), Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (2018) and All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture (2007,) and Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women (2015.)

Reviews

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The research that went into this book is astounding. Jones really puts he chops as a historian on display. I love the intimacy of the book. It does feel long and slow in parts in a way that felt very much like this was something she needed to write for herself. I appreciated the lyrical style and the tension of race and it's shifting boundaries.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a number of books on this same general topic - the murkiness of the color line that America has tried and tried to keep clear and hard. This book was very personal and compelling for that reason. In college, Martha Jones was questioned in a black studies class about her right to even be there, ostensibly because she didn't look black enough. From that point she was on a path to find out who she really was, who her ancestors were, and how she came from them.

In a way, it's ironic that a black person would question the credentials of mixed race people, given that the mixing was started by slave owners raping their property. But Jones turns this encounter to a lifetime of research and discovery that yields a multigenerational story of her father and his ancestors.

I love family history research, so that part of the book is a natural fit for my interests. Where Jones finds the story, and how she navigates between oral history and the documented record is interesting. The strength of the women of her paternal line, as they kept their families together and tried their best to make the system work for them, is inspiring.

I would have loved to have a genealogical table somewhere, so I could keep the lines straight, but I would review them in my head after each chapter to be sure I knew where I was.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in American history.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book resonated with me in many ways. It fell flat for me in others. I am younger than this author as I was born before she finished high school. Our challenges would've been different but in ways relatable. My father is Black, and my mother is white. Although I have lightskin as a child, I was clearly perceived as Black. As an adult, I'm sometimes recognized as Black but sometimes thought to be Domican, Borican, or a different POC. I'm recognized to clearly not be white, but it isn't always clear I'm Black. I've always identified as Black as I was born before identifying as mixed was even an option on forms that collect racial data.

Race is a social construct, and situations like the author's really highlight the ridiculousness of how race is used in our society. Thanks to DNA advances, we now know the average Black person in the USA has anywhere from 10-25% or more of European ancestry. Dr. Henry Louis Gates himself is only about 54% West African even though he has 2 Black parents and 4 Black grandparents. Yet Blackness is more than the percentage of West African DNA an individual possesses.

This author can pass for white and is descended from folks who have extremely lightskin. Some were even mistaken as white. The author was challenged by an unambiguously Black man at university in the mid 70's and seemingly never got over it. She and all of her ancestors since slavery benefited from their access to whiteness via their complexion. That complexion being maintained through generations means her family actively participated in colorist beliefs and practices. It's not an accident at all that she's the complexion she is. Her ancestors chose, even down to her own parents, to marry other very lightskinned Black folks.

The author dismisses the idea that her Enslaved light skin ancestress, whom she looks like, could've participated in colorism or the rampant blue vein society and paper bag tests that start immediately post emancipation Now we know that's not true through the published writings of Charles W. Chesnutt. His short story, 'The Wife of his Youth,' features ex-Enslaved folks using skin color based discrimination against darker complexion Black folks in order to maintain a light skin, 'blue vein' Black community. This author is definitely educated enough to know this and is disingenuous in pretending her enslaved ancestress didn't participate in this deeply antiblack behavior. This section of the book feels like the author is still trying to prove something to the young man who challenged her at university. Only her tone in response proved he was correct to challenge her.

The author's ancestors were so successful precisely because of their lightskin privilege. As such, they definitely discriminated against other Black folks who didn't look unambiguously Black to maintain that complexion in their descendants. Whole Black social societies exist that this was their main function. It's still somewhat rampant today.

I know this from stories within my own Black family. My father was very dark skinned. He was called blue-black and blue gums within the Black Community growing up. His second wife, my stepmother, is very lightskinned and from a historically lightskin Black family. They married in their mid 40's but he told me that had he met her when they were young enough that they could've had kids he'd have likely not been welcome to date her by her parents. Now, her family was lovely and welcoming, but that was his experience growing up. Being Black with dark skin drastically impacts one's experience in society. This is backed by multiple scientific studies. It's important that colorism be acknowledged historically as well as in modern times.

I found the author's family history extremely interesting, fascinating even. My criticism isn't meant to deny the author's identity. I'm not saying she's not Black or that she doesn't deserve to be a subject matter expert on her studies of Black history. Nothing of the sort. She's still Black. Lightskin Black folks need to allow unambiguously Black folks to lead the discussion on the difficulty of moving through society in a Black body. Gatekeeping Blackness is important, and it's okay for her to be questioned by other members of the Black Community.

The tone of this memoir reminded me of the memoir Negroland by Margo Jefferson. Both women grew up in privileged families, and both women were reluctant to own their privilege as a result. They are also of a similar age, so maybe its a generational quirk.

This book is narrated by the author Martha S. Jones. I don't always think that authors should read their own books. I find this to be especially true with nonfiction. A good narrator truly helps nonfiction books to keep the narrative moving and not get bogged down in detail. Having said that, I actually quite enjoyed this authors voice and narration. Given the subject matter, it was informative to hear for oneself which words the author stressed and to hear the emotion in her voice. This was a good choice.

Thank you to Martha S. Jones, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family history memoir about the trouble of ambiguous skin color and race. Professor Jones's book chronicles some fascinating ancestors whose stories are compelling. I enjoyed the way she told this story, by starting with one of her earliest fair-skinned ancestors and bringing it forward to cover her parents and herself. It has a powerful ending.

Jones calls this book a meditation on her ancestors. It has also caused me to meditate on mine, it has given me permission to go back and work on my family tree. This book also made me think about my mixed-race ancestors and what troubles/conundrums they faced during their time.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

An American Historian's family history and heritage through the trouble of color- being too little or too much. Martha S. Jones is such a skilled historian and great writer. I enjoyed hearing about her personal experience with colorism. Hearing about her journey to discover more about her ancestors was fascinating. It felt like she was a detective with so much care and attention to detail she gave. When she discovered more about Nancy and Betty, I celebrated her joy. She was an active participant in uncovering more knowledge and connection with those who came before her. I smiled at memories she shared about her summers with Musie. Her emotional intelligence is profound. Her care and tenderness in this book made me grateful as a reader.

Thank you a Netgalley and publishers for this ARC!

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this historical memoir. Jones came to write it because, as a mixed-race person who looked sort of white, another student in a college Black Studies class challenged her: "Who do you think you are?" This question led to her research into her mixed-race family.
It is often a very interesting story. For one thing, she learned that the marriage between her light-skinned father and her white mother in 1957 was not the first interracial marriage in her family. Back in 1827, Elijah Jones, her great-great-grandfather on her father's side, married Mary Haith, a white woman. Such unions were illegal, but a legal marriage would benefit their future children, who would be legitimate and entitled to inheritance rights. Mary and Elijah managed to evade the law. Mary gave up her past, her Haith name, and any discernible ties to whiteness.
Of course, many of her ancestors were mixed-race due to slavery and the practice of white men to impose sexual relations on the women they owned. Some of these unions may have been consensual, a way for enslaved women to --hopefully -- prevent their children from being sold away from them. Many were not. Both the break-up of families and the denial of bodily autonomy were part of the terrible cruelty of slavery.
While her story is interesting, I did not find Jones to be especially insightful about what crossing the color line means, and the costs it imposes. I learned more about this from reading "The Librarian," a novel by Marie Benedict that tells the true story of Belle da Costa Greene, the personal librarian of J. P. Morgan, who passed as white. Or from reading the novel, "The Vanishing Half," by Brit Bennett about twin sisters, one of whom passes while the other embraces her Black identity.
I also found irritating the great amount of speculation about actions and motives in which Jones indulges. To take just one example, in a discussion of the baptism of Nancy, an enslaved woman who was owned by Martha, and was probably also related to her, Jones writes, "Surely a gesture passed between them when Nancy was baptized. Perhaps Martha embraced Nancy and held her close for a moment. They may have clasped hands. Martha may have sent a deep nod of approval to Nancy across the sanctuary. Harder to know is whether they nestled into a shared bench or sat apart." I don't understand why this is harder to know. It seems to me that Jones cannot know much about any of the details. Why put in all of this speculation about something that can't be known?
The writing is sometimes unnecessarily overwrought, as when she says that she was not a removed researcher at Oxmoor, a plantation where her ancestors possibly had been enslaved, nor was she a curious tourist. "Instead, I was looking for signs of my own family, and my eyes stung as I took in the terrible beauty of Oxmoor. Could I resist the effect of its potent blend of restored opulence and repressed terror?"
In other places, she tells the reader that when she learned something about a relative facing difficulty, she experienced deep anxiety for him. But she knows how the story ends, so the anxiety seems phony. In general, I don't think she needs to confide in the reader her feelings. Just tell the story and let it do its work on the reader's emotions.
I thought the end of the book where she writes honestly about her mixed feelings about her parents was more successful. She does not idealize her parents, as she does her grandparents and great-grandparents, but just presents them as people with flaws.

[Ezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Trouble of Color is an interesting mix of memoir and family history. Martha Jones is a history professor who has written several books on black history.

Jones is descended from an extraordinary group of people of color, both enslaved and free. This book chronicles Jones’s search to uncover as much information as possible on each of her ancestors to add to the stories she heard growing up.

As far back as Jones can trace, her family has been mixed race. Some of them were able to pass as white. Each generation has had to decide how they will navigate the ever-shifting color line.

Martha Jones begins the book with a story about a time in college when a fellow black student questioned her black identity because she has light-skin and straight hair. I think it would have been helpful if Jones had then given a brief history of the development and changes over time of the concept of race in America.

Jones is sometimes mistaken for being white, which might lead some modern readers to also question her black identity. In the past she would have been seen as black because she has black ancestors. Jones’s white mother was even disowned by her family for marrying Jones’s black father, even though he could and did pass as white later in his life.

Unfortunately, the reader doesn’t get any of that background, not even about her parents until almost the end of the book. So Jones begins the book with her identity being questioned, and then doesn’t really interact with that idea until the end. Even then the topic isn’t explored in a larger way. It is only discussed in relation to herself and her family.

Since Martha Jones isn’t famous, she needed to at least begin by giving the reader her credentials. However, Jones doesn’t tell us about herself, and she expects the reader to not only care about her, but also to care about all of her ancestors, which is a pretty big ask for someone we don’t know.

For a memoir to be interesting the memorist needs to a.) be famous, b.) have an unusual life, or c.) their life needs to be clearly connected to the experiences of a larger audience. None of those criteria were fully met in this book. Criteria b. and or c. could have been easily met with some changes/additions. I think both Jones and her family are extraordinary people, but I think they could have been presented in a way that made that more apparent to the reader.

A smaller issue I had with the book is Jones’s inclusion of unnecessary details about her daily life. Much of the book recounts her search for information about her family. She will tell the reader about what she ate for breakfast, or about washing her face. I wasn’t interested in those details. I am, however, interested in the history books that Jones has written, and plan to look into them.

I listened to the audio version of this book and the author did the narration. She isn’t a professional narrator, but she does a good job. The production and audio quality were good. There weren’t any mistakes left in, which I have heard many times as an avid audiobook consumer.

Thanks to Hachette Audio through NetGalley who let me to listen to the audio version of this book.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

For this and other book reviews, subscribe to my blog! www.bargain-sleuth.com

Thanks to NetGalley (Edelweiss) and Publisher for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I was thoroughly mesmerized by Martha’s family story. Many people of black ancestry cannot go that far back on their family trees because of slavery, but Jones was able to unearth many stories from her ancestry with years of research. The cloudiness of the color line in America is brought home with the author’s story of her family.

I enjoy looking into family history and appreciated the work done by Jones to get a clearer picture of her family’s story. The fact that she had lighter skin made her a target in a Black studies class in college. She began to question her identity and slowly, through years of research, compiled this work, which focuses on the color line in America, which some people still want to make Black and white, but in reality, is a lot murkier than that, and it all began with white men raping their Black slave women and getting them pregnant.

The whole issue of colorism is fascinating to me, given that it wasn’t so long ago that miscegenation was illegal. The fact that Martha’s father could pass for white, and in fact on some legal documents, he was marked as white, had to have been hard to see for Jones, yet at the same time, she knew that her parents’ marriage was against the law. The fact that her father could pass as white is a whole other story, and Jones captures her thoughts as well as how society treated people of color over the years.

Jones is an able narrator, both in prose, and as one who voices her own words as the teller of her family’s truths. Not only is she a gifted historian and writer, but she also narrates very well, too. I’m going to be looking into more of this author’s work.

[Karin Wulf · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much to say about this extraordinary book. I'm a historian of early America and of gender and family --and I read a lot of family histories/ memoirs. And because of my own research focus the books I read are wrestling with historical issues that resonate and reverberate, like race and immigration (see my comments on Ava Chin's book). Martha Jones is an incredible historian and writer to start, but in this book she reveals new ways to think about the complexities, historical specificities and also some of the poignant universal experiences of American family. While peeling back the stories of her multiracial family, and some of the ways that their lives collectively were so profoundly shaped by the law and culture of racial hierarchy and privilege, she also shows us individuals who you will wish you could have known.

[Kimberley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a perfect mix of personal memoir and historical research. I enjoyed every minute of listening. It was fascinating from start to end. I appreciate the author delving into her personal story so deeply, examining the role colorism had in her lived experiences. You can’t understand the complexity of color in the African American community without examining the historical context. In a country where even one drop made a difference in your classification, what did it mean to be mixed blood through slavery and beyond? It’s a complex history and reality that the author navigated superbly. Mere historical research wouldn’t have been as accessible so the addition of personal family history made all the difference. Thank you for sharing your story!

[Bryan Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on the front of shop shelf (it might have been like a staff recommends? Idk I didn’t check) of the Harvard bookshop in Cambridge. What a brilliant piece of work! The final chapters were really touching, and it was a privilege to read an author who was a deeply passionate about history but also had such a personal story to tell.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of the year thus far. Not the view into history that I was expecting, but rather Jones's exploration of idiosyncratic and sometimes very unexpected individual ancestor stories and how they merge into a larger historical and personal experience. This book is a slow burn that becomes profoundly moving in its totality.

[Annie J (The History Solarium Book Club) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martha S. Jones’s The Trouble of Color is a deeply personal exploration of family, race, and identity across generations. As a legal historian known for her incisive scholarship on citizenship and Black women’s activism, Jones turns inward in this memoir-meets-family-history. It’s intimate and thoughtful—rooted in archival depth—but it didn’t fully draw me in the way I’d hoped. This memoir charts the story of Jones’s ancestors as they navigate the evolving definitions of race and belonging in America. The depth research into the historical records, description of photographs, and inclusion of oral histories presented a masterclass on weaving a historical narrative. What stood out most to me was how deeply personal this project is for Jones. She brings a historian’s rigor to her own lineage, and the research is clearly meticulous. However, I had a hard time keeping track of all the family members and their relationships—especially without having any prior familiarity with Jones’s family background. When I choose a memoir, I typically already know a bit about the subject, and that helps keep me grounded and engaged. With The Trouble of Color, I found myself getting lost in the web of names and timelines, which made it harder to stay emotionally connected. That said, I admire the work—Jones writes with grace and intellectual clarity, and the project will be especially compelling to family historians or readers exploring multigenerational stories.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Basic Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy of Martha S. Jones’s The Trouble of Color.

[J Kromrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

In The Trouble of Color, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones turns her scholarly lens inward, excavating five generations of her own family’s history to confront one of America’s most enduring and elusive constructs: the color line. What emerges is not just a memoir, but a lyrical, unflinching meditation on race, belonging, and the inheritance of identity.

The memoir opens with a moment of rupture: a college classmate in a Black Studies course challenges Jones’s right to speak, questioning her Blackness based on her light skin and suburban mannerisms. That confrontation—raw, humiliating, and catalytic—becomes the spark for a decades-long journey into her family’s past.

Jones traces her lineage from her great-great-great-grandmother, who survived enslavement, through generations who navigated the jagged terrain of race in America. From rural Kentucky to suburban Long Island, her ancestors danced, dodged, and sometimes collided with the shifting definitions of “coloredness.” The result is a memoir that is deeply intimate and expansively historical.

Jones doesn’t just recount her family’s story—she interrogates it. She explores how race is not a fixed identity but a social performance, one shaped by geography, class, gender, and survival. Her great-grandmother Fannie, for instance, “danced along the color line” when it suited her, while others in the family bore the scars of being seen as too Black—or not Black enough.

The memoir is especially powerful in its treatment of “passing”—not as betrayal, but as strategy, as burden, and sometimes as liberation. Jones resists easy moralizing, instead offering a nuanced portrait of how people navigate systems designed to erase or diminish them.

Jones’ prose is elegant and restrained, but never cold. She blends meticulous archival research with moments of emotional candor, creating a narrative that feels both grounded and transcendent. Her historian’s eye finds the luminous in the overlooked: a census record, a photograph, a whispered family story—all become portals into larger truths.

The structure is non-linear, echoing the way memory and history often unfold—not as a straight line, but as a spiral. Each chapter feels like a conversation between past and present, between the author and her ancestors, between the reader and the American story.

👥 Characters:

- Fannie, the high-spirited great-grandmother who could “pass” but chose when and how to do so, is a standout—her story alone could anchor a novel.
- Jones’s parents, a Black father and white mother, are portrayed with tenderness and complexity, their interracial marriage a quiet act of defiance in its time.
- Jones herself is a compelling narrator—vulnerable, incisive, and unafraid to ask difficult questions of herself and her lineage.

Final thoughts:

The Trouble of Color is not just a family memoir—it’s a reclamation. Jones challenges the notion that Black history is unknowable or undocumented. By weaving her personal story into the broader tapestry of American history, she offers a powerful rebuttal to erasure and a luminous example of what it means to be both witness and participant in the making of history.

This is a book that will resonate with readers of Saidiya Hartman, Natasha Trethewey, and Clint Smith. It’s a memoir that doesn’t just tell a story—it changes how we understand the stories we’ve been told.

[Carol Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hate to give a memoir a low rating because memoirs are difficult to write. On the plus side, the author has done a lot of research, has a lot of information both from oral family history and records, and the story is easy to read.
However, the reader expects honesty and the writer attempts to provide it. The reader also expects introspection and growth and I did not see it in this book.
The author engages us with a challenge regarding her race from a college classmate and while she tells us about her ancestorial biraciality – including the continued mention of her female ancestors (forced? coerced? voluntary?) amalgamation she does not tell us about her immediate biracial heritage which is incredibly relevant to this memoir and the question(s) posed.
Race is also fraught in the US for some people. For those on the color line it can be difficult while those of us who are not passing blanc or who cannot not or will not deny their black ancestry have different experiences.
Family can be loaded in memoirs. The author’s recollection(s) of conversations with family appear to stress the white ancestry, are delighted by it and brag about it. (Note: Black people who are descendants of enslaved individuals are aware we have white ancestry).
I am not sure how the author did not know her birth certificate listed her race as white and that of her parents as white until she was 19. No one ever showed her her birth certificate? She also muses about why the obstetrician who completed her birth certificate and despite knowing her father’s sister listed her father as white. Come on. The doctor knew the life of a biracial child born in the 1950’s would be easier if said child was deemed white instead of black. Similarly, her father’s decision to not say anything when a friend denigrated black athletes was devastating to the author but her father – who was passing blanc – shrugged it off. Indeed her father’s death certificate lists him as white.
The trouble is not color, it is the author’s family and their beliefs.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at both regular history *AND* family history within the author's own family tree, specifically within the confines of race, passing/not passing, and how that affects everyone.

While I found some of this book deeply interesting [and learned some very interesting history I had been unaware of], much of this book was [for me] confusing [with a very large cast of family members to keep track of], rather jumbled at times [lots of "then and now" scenarios], a plethora of minutia of the daily life of the author [which was, for me, not engaging at all and I will admit to checking out when this occured], and even when you finally find ot how this applies to the author [but not until the very end], I was left wondering just what the author was trying to convay and what we all were to learn from it.

The author narrates this book and even though she did have a propensity to speed the narration up, overall, she did a really good job and I was glad I was able to listen to this book. I would recommend the audiobook and would listen to her narrate again.

Thank you to NetGalley, Martha S. Jones, Basic Books and Hachette Audio/Basic Books for providing both the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

[Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. History, even family history, in the subjunctive mood isn't really history; it's opinion dramatically ginned up to create interest. Disappointing because the story doesn't really need any goosing. Jones is descended from educated and privileged free people of color and spends her book speculating about some of the choices they made along the way. The narrative is at its worst, as other reviewers have pointed out, when it pretends anxiety about the outcome of a particular episode, when the author already knows how it's going to turn out. There's a superheated quality to much of this that leaches it of much of its interest as history. Instead, it ends up being essentially a collection of family tales embroidered to varying degrees over time, though the extent of the tailoring is obscured by the narrative mode. There's an ur-moment that presumably inspires this effort, a calling out of the author by a Black man in a college class. There's not enough information about that moment to judge whether 'Ron' was in the right or himself over the top in his reaction to Jones, but more than once reading this overegged book I felt my own inner Ron getting more and more irritated.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy multi-generational genealogy accounts. This one is Martha's completing of oral history passed down through her family by using archival and census research to confirm and expand stories from her grandparents. Martha's female ancestors were enslaved, and had no power to say yes or no to the master's sexual desires. She really explores the "color line" of shades of brown, and the ability of several of her ancestors to "pass" as white. But they did so seemingly just to prove they could "trick" the segregationists. Martha's own parents, who married in the 1950s, were a mixed-race couple. Their marriage was still illegal in most states at the time. Martha proudly claims her heritage among the African-Americans. I had some stylistic problems with the book and a simple family tree would have helped. Some of the focus on people seemed to go back and forth, so I sometimes lost track of which generation and person she was writing about.

[Joe Keefhaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and thought-provoking book about the "problem" of being mixed race in the United States. In addressing this subject, Jones tells the very personal story of her own family. Hers is a family of very light-skinned African-Americans, many of whom have achieved success in education, medicine and other professions. Growing up, the author learned that such light-skinned people were sometimes viewed as "pretenders" by white society. Sadly, she also learned her own grandmother held some racial prejudice against darker-skinned African-Americans. She also learned some "facts" handed down by her family were not always accurate, as they attempted to navigate through life in a country filled with hatred and discrimination.

[KDub · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Trouble of Color by Martha S Jones is a fascinating mix of memoir and family history research. The author narrates the audiobook herself, which I always love. Her research and backstory touch on the unique issues that face those who are both black and white

I think maybe this would have been easier to digest with the physical version of the book instead of audio. I got confused at times keeping up with all of the details, and it is difficult to skim back through an audiobook.

Recommended for those who love memoirs, genealogy, and learning about race relations in history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the ALC.

[Kathleen Lenihan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sub-genre of the memoir is the family history memoir. The author does an excellent job of weaving together the personal story of her ancestors and family members with the events of the larger world and the challenges faced in those times. It's filled with the little details that matter and bring a story to life - what her grandmother's tea cups looked like and how they were used, the clothes they wore, and her experience doing this research.

For anyone considering writing their own family history memoir, it's a wonderful resource.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Basic Books for choosing me.

This is a thought-provoking conversation starter of a book. Anyone who can get their hands on it should definitely crack it open. It is absolutely necessary for all of us to be aware of one another, and this is a good place to start.

It's raw. It's not always pretty, and yet it's a masterpiece.

This is a book that needs to be spoken about any chance we get.

[Jeni Enjaian]

(I do not rate memoirs.)
Jones told a fascinating family history that wrestled with the color line, something that had profound effects on her family, people descended from former slaves exploited by their masters, and one tradition-defying voluntary interracial marriage on the freedman side of the author's family. This arbitrary societal "norm" had profound, generational impacts on her family. Jones treated this with care and with compassion. I highly recommend this family history/memoir.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straddling the color line, the author researches her father's family's history back into the mid-nineteenth century, discovering blacks and whites coupled unwillingly or willingly and how they dealt with America's definitions. I was also amused by the inclusion of the findings of outsiders studying her accomplished forebears. I would have liked some kind of family tree at the end, because there are many characters..

[Lauren J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martha Jones delves deep into her family history related to the color line. She learns how her various relatives were treated related to the color of their skin. She also learns how each one aligns with their family of origin as many were bred with the white slave masters. It brings up a LOT of valuable information related to color and how people have been treated over the years. It is something every high schooler should learn!

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the Audio ARC!

The Trouble of Color is an interesting exploration of the author's roots, her family identity, and what it all means in the racially charged world of today. I especially enjoyed the historical research regarding the ins and outs of her genealogy, who knew what, who didn't know who they really were, and everything in between.

[Rachel Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe this read/listen would be best appreciated by individuals who have undergone their own ancestry journey. You can feel the authors passion about uncovering her lineage and it is quite inspiring. There were points I found it to be a bit dry, but overall it was an inspiring and enlightening read about part of history I was previously blind to.

[Bj · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this memoir. The writing is excellent, including some genealogical approaches such as evidence standards and use of confidence level wording, i.e., "liking" to support relationship connections. The author's story and family history are very interesting.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A combination of meticulous research into her family history combined with a memoir. The author is mixed race which informs her history. I wish the book had included a family tree as I sometimes got confused about what generation was being discussed.

[Susan Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written and interesting family history. The author speaks to both the advantages and troubles of being very light skinned Negros. Very thoughtful