Blackberry Juice

“Blackberry Juice” by Ralph C. Hamm III, is an impressive collection of short stories, essays, poetry, and a full length play, from a remarkable man who has spent 46 years of his life in prison for a non capital offense when he was 17. It contains a wide range of his writing styles that not only attest to his talent as a writer but also to his insight, vision, and intellect as a leader of stature in the prison reform movement and the black community in general. It is powerful book, not a palliative full of mellifluous words attempting to soften the implications of the harsh truths of racism in the justice system, too often ignored or simply dismissed as the contumelious ranting of an “angry black man,” merely playing the “race card,” rather it is a clear-eyed, analytical exposé, by a gifted writer, of the realities and implications of racism for one prisoner who is in need of justice.