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NON-FICTION

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters offers you its award for a "Non-Fiction Work of Contemporary Significance" that work being Soledad Brother written behind the walls of San Quentin Prison.

Your work reflects the poignance and the pathos of the forbidden writings of the black slave of a hundred years ago, and we are reminded afresh of the ominous implications of unfreedom in the midst of a society of the free. Whatever your perspectives, you have shown that art may survive and dignity maintain itself wherever men retain a steady vision of who they are and who they may become.

For your innovative contribution to the significanct [[significant]] literature explicative of the contemporary black experience, we present to your representative this award.