I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is the Sunday story from Up First.

Every Sunday we do something special, going beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story.

A decade ago, writer Tannahassee Coates ignited a national conversation with his article in the Atlantic

titled The Case for Reparations.

A year later he released his book Between the world and me, which explores the realities of being

black in America.

Now in his new book, The Message, he takes readers on a journey to three places, Africa, the American South, and the Middle East.

He starts in Senegal where he visits the door of no return, a memorial to the victims of the Atlantic slave trade, then to South Carolina

where his previous book has been the subject of bookbands, and finally to the West Bank,

where he found himself reckoning with his own understanding of the conflict there.

Tanahasi Coach joins me today. Tan Hasi, thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me.

You start out talking about this book, almost as if it's an overdue writing assignment.

You promised an essay for a writing workshop

and you never got to it.

Instead, it feels like the world got this book.

Is that really what happened? I did have an overdue writing assignment, I definitely did.

What it was supposed to be was the chapter on Dakar actually. That second semester I was at

Howard. I traveled to Dakar, Senegal.

And I had told them, you know, when I got back that I was working on this thing and they were

submitting their essays and so in the spirit of work shopping, I would submit mine and I never got it done.

So...

...