"The United States is not a nation of black and white people. Any fool can seethat white people are not really white, and that black people are not black." Thisbroadside in Albert Murray's first book, "The Omni-Americans," published in 1970, announced the arrival of a major new force in American letters, one that stood indefiant opposition to James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and other writers who hebelieved overstated and even perpetuated the racial divide in American life. Released to mark his centennial in 2016, this Library of America volume brings together "TheOmni-Americans "with five other books in the most complete collection of Murray'sgroundbreaking nonfiction ever published. One part travelogue and one partmemoir, "South to a Very Old Place" (1971) is a frank report on racial relations in theDeep South amid the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement. "The Hero and theBlues" (1973) develops Murray's belief that the essential bond shared by bothdominant American culture and what he called Negro culture is the sharedembrace of a "blues aesthetic" that emphasized creative improvisation. "Stompingthe Blues" (1976) is a vivid history of American jazz and blues music that served asinspiration for the foundation of Jazz at Lincoln Center, established by Murray, Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch, and other enthusiasts in 1987. The volume isrounded out by two later essay collections, "The Blue Devils of Nada" (1996) and"From the Briarpatch Files" (2001) which solidified Murray's reputation as a penetratingcritic and an always engaging stylist--or, to use the epithet once bestowed on himby volume co-editor Henry Louis Gates Jr., "The King of Cats."