The Nickel Boys draws thematic parallels from Whitehead's other works, which often deal with issues of racial justice. In the acknowledgments, Whitehead cites The White House Boys: An American Tragedy, by Roger Dean Kiser, and The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption, by Robin Gaby Fisher, as "excellent accounts" of the real-life Dozier School that inspired Nickel Academy. He also recommends Tom Murton/Joe Hyams's Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal as useful "ground's-eye view of prison corruption," and Julianne Hare's Historic Frenchtown: Heart and Heritage in Tallahassee as a history of the Frenchtown African-American community.
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