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Compelling and enlightening, this collection of primary source documents allows twenty-first century students to 'direct dial' key figures in African-American history. It includes concise and perceptive commentary along with engaging suggestions for discussion and project work.
* Examines key themes from multiple perspectives
* Features a diverse range of voices that cut across class and political affiliations as well as across regions and generations
* Chronological and thematic coverage from emancipation to the current day
* Primary source documents include everything from letters and speeches to photographs, rap lyrics and newspaper reports
* Incorporates recent as well as traditional historical interpretations
* Classroom-ready text which includes keynotes on documents, differentiated material and engaging discussion questions
List of contents
List of Illustrations ix
Series Editors' Preface x
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Freedom, 1865-1881 8
1 Black Ministers Meet with Representatives of the Federal Government, January 1865 9
2 Frederick Douglass Argues for Black Suffrage, April 1865 12
3 Jourdon Anderson Writes to His Old Master, 1865 15
4 Harriet Simril Testifies Before a Congressional Committee, South Carolina, 1871 18
5 Resolutions of the National Civil Rights Convention, 1873 21
6 The Exodusters, 1878 22
7 Black Washerwomen Demand a Living Wage, 1866 and 1881 24
Chapter 2 Upbuilding, 1893-1910 28
1 Ida B. Wells Speaks Out Against Lynching in the South, 1893 30
2 Booker T. Washington Speaks on Race at Atlanta, 1895 34
3 The National Association of Colored Women, 1897 and 1898 38
4 The Negro National Anthem, 1900 and 1905 44
5 Photographs from the Paris Exposition, 1900 46
6 From W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903 47
7 Black Leaders Disagree with Booker T. Washington: The Niagara Movement, 1905 52
8 Jack Johnson, 1910 56
Chapter 3 Migration, 1904-1919 59
1 Voices from The Independent, 1904 and 1912 60
2 Letters of Negro Migrants, 1916-1917 68
3 The East St. Louis Riot, 1917 72
4 Why African Americans Left the South, 1919 77
Chapter 4 Determination, 1917-1925 85
1 W. E. B. Du Bois on African Americans and World War I, 1918 and 1919 87
2 Poet Claude McKay Sets a New Tone, 1919 90
3 Emmett J. Scott Reflects on "What the Negro Got Out of the War," 1919 90
4 Program of the NAACP, 1919 94
5 Marcus Garvey Outlines the Rights of Black Peoples, 1920 99
6 Cyril V. Briggs Merges Race Consciousness with Class Consciousness, 1922 106
7 Langston Hughes on Being Black in America, 1925 109
8 Amy Jacques Garvey Calls on Women to Lead, 1925 110
Chapter 5 Resistance, 1927-1939 114
1 The Scottsboro Boys Write to the Workers of the World, 1932 115
2 Angelo Herndon Joins the Communist Party, 1934 117
3 Ella Baker and Marvel Cooke Report on "The Bronx Slave Market," 1935 124
4 Richard Wright Observes a Black Response to Joe Louis' Victory, 1935 126
5 The Southern Negro Youth Congress on Freedom, Equality, and Opportunity, 1937 129
6 The Coordinating Committee for Employment, New York, 1938 131
7 Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial, 1939 133
Chapter 6 Resolve, 1941-1952 136
1 The March on Washington Movement, 1941 138
2 The "Double V" Campaign, 1942 142
3 A Black Army Chaplain Protests the Treatment of Black Soldiers, 1944 142
4 Pauli Murray on Student Protests in Washington, DC, 1944 147
5 The Civil Rights Congress Charges the US with Genocide, 1951 151
6 African Americans Petition the President and the American Delegation to the United Nations, 1952 158
Chapter 7 Discontent, 1953-1959 165
1 Thurgood Marshall Reargues Brown v. Board of Education, 1953 167
2 The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 171
3 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Writes on Non-Violence, 1957 174
4 Robert F. Williams Advocates Armed Self-Defense, 1959 177
Chapter 8 Revolt, 1960-1963 184
1 Young Activists Form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1960 186
2 Ella Baker Reports on the Founding of SNCC, 1960 187
3 Robert Moses Writes from Jail in Magnolia, Mississippi, 1961 188
4 The Freedom Rides, 1961 189
5
About the author
Leslie Brown is Associate Professor of History at Williams College. An award-winning author and editor, her books include Upbuilding Black Durham: Gender, Class, and Black Community Development in the Jim Crow South (2008), which won the Organization of American Historians' 2009 Frederick Jackson Turner Award. Brown also co-edited Living with Jim Crow: African American Women and Memories of the Segregated South (2010), which was awarded the 2011 Oral History Association Book Award.
Summary
Compelling and enlightening, this collection of primary source documents allows twenty-first century students to direct dial key figures in African-American history. It includes concise and perceptive commentary along with engaging suggestions for discussion and project work.
