Iron City is based on an actual court case and inspired by the author's experiences as a labor organizer and political prisoner. This well-crafted novel tells the story of Lonnie James, a black youth falsely convicted of-and sentenced to death for-the murder of a white businessman. From inside the “iron city” of a state penitentiary in a northern steel town, three black Communist prisoners spearhead a fight to save Lonnie James's life. In advancing the author's controversial socialist vision of black and white proletarian solidarity, Iron City unflinchingly confronts race relations in mid-twentieth-century America inside and outside prison walls.