Racehoss

Doing time. Some men do it behind prison walls. Others, imprisoned from within, mark time in a life they are condemned to endure, without promise of fulfillment. Albert Race Sample seemed destined to do time one way or the other. Born in the South during the Depression, this mixed-race product of a hard-drinking black prostitute and white cotton broker emerged from an abusive childhood an angry young outcast on a straight path to the penitentiary. This is the violent and triumphant true story of his journey to hell and back. Hell for Sample was the Retrieve, a unit of the Texas State Prison system reserved for the most incorrigible black prisoners. A plantation prison where men slaved from dawn to dusk, it cracked the spirits of the weak and hardened the souls of the strong. For “Racehoss,” as Sample was called, the Retrieve was a place to learn how to pick cotton or starve, and a place to witness unbearable brutality, which he describes in awesome detail in the pages of this stunning book. A profound spiritual awakening in solitary confinement changed his future dramatically. He writes, “My life was spent in darkness. And then there was Light.” After seventeen years of incarceration, he was released in 1972 and soon became a prominent voice in the field of corrections and rehabilitation of ex-offenders. His ability to understand the forces that drove him to prison and his devotion to helping others also see the light of change earned him a full pardon in 1976. This autobiography is hardly the culmination of Sample’s life. It is the prophecy of his soul. A natural born storyteller, he recounted his deeply moving journey of resiliency, revelation and redemption in the award-winning documentary film RACEHOSS. Produced and directed by Sean Hepburn Ferrer, this riveting one-man performance of an aged Albert Race Sample standing on a stage before an audience telling his remarkable life story is a powerful reminder that the human spirit can triumph against all odds.