The diversity of their voices is exhibited in a collection of their columns from the end of 2005 through the first half of 2006.

What's on the minds of these columnists?
Read entries about politics [Gregory Stanford, Vernon Jarrett], pop culture icons [Derrick Jackson, Rochelle Riley], so-called ordinary people [Errol Louis, Lewis Diuguid], foreign policy [Dwight Lewis, DeWayne Wickham], criminal justice [Tonyaa Weathersbee, Wil LaVeist], and holidays and commemorations [Betty Winston Baye, Richard Prince].

There are topics that speak to every reader.

Engage, enjoy and continue to follow these writers who publish weekly or several days a week in newspapers and other media.

“Collectively they weave strands of African-American history from Jim Crow up through ‘Hustle and Flow.’ Pieces of memory, fragments of encounters, reporting of current events — all are here, dispatched from Boston, Detroit, Virginia, and other regions, intersecting in a multi-faceted piece of geography called Black America.”

— Todd Steven Burroughs review in The Black World Today, tbwt.org

Farai Chideya of NPR's “News & Notes” talks to Wayne Dawkins, editor of “Black Voices in Commentary,” and Betty Baye, a contributor to the book: www.npr.org

Order from August Press, 800-268-4338, www.augustpress.net or www.amazon.com or Barnes & Noble www.bn.com.