The Last Integrationist

Jake Lamar sets his story in the near future - a time close at hand. America's war against drugs and crime has resulted in harsh restrictions and public executions. The prime mover in this war is Attorney General Melvin Hutchinson, a brilliant black lawyer and staunch conservative who as a judge was dubbed "Hang 'Em High Hutch." Melvin Hutchinson is on the fast track to a vice-presidential nomination, but he has a potentially explosive secret. And then there is Emma Person, a talented photographer who is having a difficult time understanding her Jewish boyfriend's insensitivity and his mother's hatred. Emma's black friends place demands on her that she struggles against, finding herself trapped between two warring camps - white and black - instinctively resisting the rigid definitions of both. Emma's story and Melvin's are told against the background of a country roiled by anger and hatred, a country that seems to have lost its soul while blacks and whites try to find a way to live together or live apart.