"Trapped in the Valley of Despair" is brutally honest in its approach to giving a frank and unbiased look at America. While slavery was an aberration, the years immediately after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation were not much better. Some might even say they were worse. This book chronicles the lives of a Black family from the late 1940's up through the 1970's. Those were painful years for Blacks and other people of color, but most of them somehow persevered. Some even managed to thrive during that era even though they faced prejudice, racism, and discrimination in a society filled with double standards based primarily on the color of one's skin. To say otherwise would be both unfair and disrespectful to the people who survived the hardship they were forced to endure each and every day of their lives. My book honors those who made it, and those others who lost their lives helping to pave the way for many of us to enjoy the lives we have today. It also stresses the importance of hanging on and never giving up, if for no other reason than to see what the end is going to be.