A Statement of Purpose

This blog was started to record my thoughts about James L. Solomon and the Atlanta University math graduate program in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  My research for my article on Solomon and desegregation generated more interesting ideas than I could fit into an AMS Notices article, so I am putting them here for the time being.

The name of this blog is inspired by Chester Himes' novel "Blind man with a pistol."  Himes writes: "A friend of mine told me this story about a blind man with a pistol shooting at a man who had slapped him on a subway train and killing an innocent bystander peacefully reading his newspaper across the aisle and I thought, damn right, sounds just like today's news."

Like Himes with his novel, I will be trying to make sense of what's going on.  Since I don't have any formal training in methods of historical inquiry, this blog may just be a blind man with a math degree blasting away, but at least I shouldn't cause as many injuries as Himes' character.

Film poster for film adaption of Himes's novel The Heat's On