News at Eleven: [Natasha] Trethewey begins her exploration

with "Miracle of the Black Leg," a poem about a mythical transplant procedure in which a black man's leg was removed to save a white patient. As she notes in a brief introduction, "pictorial representations" of this event date to the 14th century. The details change in each version, but the white man is always depicted as superior:

from The Washington Post: 'Thrall' by Natasha Trethewey, the poet laureate of the United States

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