It takes a brave soul to open up about his reflections, vulnerabilities and revelations about race.

Retired Atlanta journalist and author Frederick “Rick” Allen does just that in his thought-provoking book: “Reckoning with Race: An Unfinished Journey,” released Aug. 1.

The book spans the 50 years of his journey — starting with his move to Atlanta in 197, his 15-year-long career at the Atlanta Constitution and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, his tenure at CNN as well as the writing three historical nonfiction books.

Rick Allen is a former colleague and longtime friend who reached out to me to talk about his fourth book — “Reckoning with Race” — and the journey he’s been on to reconcile all the complex and multi-layered thoughts he has wrestled with over the past half-century. (And because he’s a friend, it’s easier to refer to him as Rick rather than Allen in this column.)

Rick and I got together on Aug. 16 for coffee to talk about his book and his most personal journey as a writer.

‘It was 51 years ago that I moved to Atlanta,” Rick said. “I had a sense at first that I had arrived too late — that the civil rights movement was over. But I had arrived in time to witness the fruits of the civil rights movement with the advent of Black political power.”

One of his first assignments was covering the inauguration of Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, the city’s first Black mayor. He marveled at the arc of history: “Fifty years on, here’s Fani Willis — a Black woman — who stands in a position to possibly convict and incarcerate a former president.”

Many of the stories Rick shares are painful. He remembers being part of a scathing newspaper series, “City in Crisis,” in 1975 that challenged Mayor Jackson’s leadership. It was a series that made Alexis Scott, who had just joined the newspaper, question her choice of employer.

“The Atlanta Constitution of the 1970s was very much a white…