GROWING UP OAKLAND The Battle Royale, a cruel practice among the southern gentry in the antebellum South, saw blindfolded black boys thrown into a room to slug it out until only one boy was left standing. Don Dunbar s Battle Royale came in the late sixties, when his stepfather, who Don called the meanest man I ve ever known, threw him into a room with a much bigger boy. I got my ass whipped pretty good, Don recalls, but my fear of another was put...