PAGES : To Be Black at the Washington Post

In the Washington Post newsroom, there’s a 24-hour sign-up list--no one is allowed to keep the book for more than one day--for the galley proof of Jill Nelson’s new memoir, “Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience.”

The reason could be a passionate interest by the Post’s editorial staff in the story of a single, black mother who makes it as a big-time journalist. More likely, staffers are flipping pages to see if they are among those skewered in this story of Nelson’s 4 1/2 years as a Washington Post writer.

Nelson’s recollection begins with a devastating description of “Talking to Ben”--her pre-hire interview with then-Editor Ben Bradlee. In three-inch heels, she remembers, her feet were killing her. The only thing standing between her and “triple-minority status: black, female and handicapped” was a wad of Dr. Scholl’s lamb’s wool. As soon as she mentions the fact that she has spent summers on Martha’s Vineyard since she was a child, she writes, she knows the job is hers.

Law professor Derrick Bell lauds “Volunteer Slavery” as a “bruisingly frank depiction of the high cost of survival for black Americans.” Cornel West, author of “Race Matters,” calls it a “tragicomic rendering of the horrors and terrors of black life.” Public Enemy’s Chuck D says “straight, no chaser.”