Julie Sullivan — daughter of the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan and former Abington Township resident — has published her debut novel, “The World is Full of Champions.”

At the heart a love story, it also touches on class bias among Black Americans, writes Valerie Russ for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Growing up first in North Philadelphia and then in Rydal in Abington Township, Sullivan experienced both the world of the Black elite and the world of Black people struggling to survive.

In her novel, she tells the story of Georgie Smythe whose mother works as a maid for the Whitmans, a judge and his wife who live in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Georgia falls in love with one of the Whitmans’ sons, but his parents don’t approve.

Sullivan herself has felt this tension between Black people from different economic backgrounds personally.

Her father, who led the Zion Baptist Church in North Philadelphia for 38 years, joined the board of General Motors in 1971, and moved his family out to the suburbs. Rev. Sullivan was the first Black person to be named to a multinational corporate board in America.

“I lived in both worlds,” she said. “I had a shoe in both worlds.”

Read more about Julie Sullivan and her new novel in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Learn more about Rev. Leon H. Sullivan.