Title: Sleep deprivation chamber
First published: 1996
Description: In this autobiographical drama, a broken taillight leads to the brutal beating of a highly educated, middle-class black man by a policeman in suburban Virginia.

The Kennedys interweave the trial of the victimized son (accused of assaulting the offending officer) with the mother's poignant letters in his defense and her remembrances of growing up in the 1940s, when her parents were striving "to make Cleveland a better place for Negroes." They have created a gripping examination of the conflicting realities of the black experience in twentieth-century America.
Subjects: Drama, African American men, Mothers and sons, Police brutality, Suburban life, American drama (dramatic works by one author)
Places: Virginia
LC classification: PS3561.E42518 S58 1996