Barney Ford, Black Baron

This book was written in 1973, over 70 years after Barney Ford died. I point this out because it is written as though Barney Ford personally provided much of the information in this book when he obviously did not. I believe if this book was written today instead of over 30 years ago, it would be classified as biographical fiction and not a biography. The authors rely heavily on "Mister Barney Ford, A Portrait in Bistre" by Forbes Parkhill for their information. In fact, in several instances they lift entire passages almost word-for-word from his book. They have a fairly extensive bibliography but nothing is cited so it's impossible to know what they got where and some of their information that they did not get from Mr. Parkhill directly conflicts with information in other sources. Without knowing where they got it, it's hard to tell how reliable the information is. They also, like Mr. Parkhill, make assumptions about things that Mr. Ford said, did and thought that there is no way they could have known and this is presented as fact instead of theory or supposition. Having said all of the above, I still highly recommend this book if you want to know more about Barney Ford. He was an amazing man and this book does a good job of bringing that out. He left a tremendous imprint on the state of Colorado and advanced equal voting rights and equal treatment for blacks in ways that few people realize. If possible, read it in conjunction with either Forbes Parkhill's book or "The Adventures of Barney Ford A Runaway Slave" by Inez Hunt (who also relies heavily on Mr. Parkhill's book for her information). By reading more than one of the books, you'll get a good feel for Mr. Ford as well as where the writers have taken creative liberties with his life story.