The African-American Archive : The History of the Black Experience Through Documents [Hardcover]

Kai Wright (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2001

Here is the most sweeping and informative collection of documents detailing the Black experience ever compiled.

Destined to become the bible of writings on and about African-American culture, politics and history, THE AFRICAN AMERICAN ARCHIVE portrays the stark realities, great moments and fascinating particulars of being black in America, through the minds and pens of those who lived it. Featuring letters, articles, pamphlets and papers of all kinds, every important document is here-the Emancipation Proclamation, the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech and-along with scores of enlightening personal documents-harrowing accounts from slaves who suffered the passage from Africa, letters from black soldiers in the Civil War, journal entries from civil rights workers in the '60s and Louis Farrakhan's speech at the 1995 Million Man March. Arranged chronologically from the 1600s to the present, each document is introduced with a careful discussion, providing historical background and context.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

THE AFRICAN- AMERICAN ARCHIVE

Tracing the course of black history in America - from the first slave brought over by Spanish explores in the sixteenth century, to the leaders fighting in Congress for civil rights more than 400 years latter - The African-American Archive is a monumental collection of original documents, straight from the hands, mouths and hearts of those who lived it. Early slave narratives, letters from black soldiers in the Civil War, poems from the Harlem Renaissance, songs from the Jazz Age, speeches galvanizing resistance to Jim Crow, excerpts from the works of the most celebrated contemporary writers, and much more, all combine to create a moving and powerful chronicle of the lives and aspirations of African Americans across nearly five centuries.

From Fredrick Douglass to Barbara Jordan. The African-American Archive presents the words of the many great leaders of the black community as it examines the history of a people and the evolution of a struggle. Selections include David Walker's "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the world," Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", W.E.B. Dubois' The Souls of Black Folk, Martin Luther King's speech at the March on Washington (and Malcolm X's impassioned response), along with selections by other legendary figures including Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Kweisi Mfume and Louis Farrakhan.

Just as the leaders of the black community have shared their visions of what America should be, the laws of the nation have dictated what America is. Here too are the writs, statutes and decisions that have marked the evolution of the black individual in society: Thomas Jefferson's illuminating first draft of "The Declaration of Independence," where he struggles to balance the concept of American liberty with the ongoing subjugation of the black race (in sharp contrast to his bigoted Notes on Virginia, which is also here): Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation," promising freedom from bondage, and the subsequent Jim Crow laws that proved promise false for many; the Brown w. Board of Education decision that ruled separate was not equal; and the Congressional Black Caucus's charges of fraud and voter intimidation during the presidential election of 2000.

The African-American Archive also includes a wonderful array of renowned writers, composers, athletes and other figures from black popular culture. The nineteenth-century works of Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley represent some of the first African-American poetic voices: novelists Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison exemplify the emergence of a uniquely African-American literature during the twentieth century; in lyrics filled with fire and rebellion, N.W.A. and Public Enemy document the rise of the hip-hop and the explosion of African Americans onto the world musical stage; and Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali attest to the difficult and often controversial role of the black athlete. Along with the thundering speeches, the landmark legal decisions, the stories and poems by the black community's most acclaimed writers, The African-American Archive gives voice the forgotten many whose names don't appear in the conventional history books. A slave who survived the Middle Passage and would later buy his freedom relates the harrowing realities of the Atlantic Slave Trade; a black Union soldier writes to his family, still held in bondage, in a letter that glows with the promise of freedom; a witness to the Watts Riots of 1965 describes the scene from ground zero as years of frustration erupt into violence. These aren't the careful words of historians, but instead the honest language of those who were there, and the stories they tell are rendered with the poignancy that can be painful or inspiring, but always moving and true.

The path of our nation's development has not always been marked by honor, a fact that is nowhere more evident than in the history of Africa. Included here are wrenching testimonials from slaves, journals of the harassment suffered by crusaders for Civil Rights, and first person accounts of individual struggles within an urban obstacle course of crime, drugs and poverty.

But, invariably, for every injustice a voice of defiance has emerged; The African-American Archive collects those voices, and many others, in the first book t encompass every realm in the African-American diaspora - the historical, the political, the artistic - in a single volume. Editor insight into each piece, and weaves these disparate elements into a single narrative. In writings that are vivid, heartbreaking, joyous and direct, the many voices of black America are here in one sweeping and important collection, providing an unparalleled eyewitness account of the African-American journey.

From the Back Cover

A SWEEPING COLLECTION OF FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNTS, LANDMARK DOCUMENTS AND CELEBRATED LITERARY WORKS CHRONICLING THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICA

O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need to storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nations must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. (From Frederick Douglass's What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Speech, delivered on July 4th, 1852, in Rochester, New York)

Next time I go to a movie and see a picture of a little ordinary girl become a great star, I'll believe it. And whenever I hear my wife read fairy tales to my little boy, I'll listen. I know that dreams do come true. I know because I am now playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the big leagues!.Last Thursday, Mr. Rickey called me to his office. He said: "Jackie you're a big leaguer now. You're going to play with the Dodgers and we're announcing it to the world today." I walked out of his office in a trance. .

When the umpire said: "Play ball!" I finally started thinking baseball. I finally realized that I was a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers; that I had made the big leagues. . I will never stop trying. I hope that I'll get better and better every day and help bring a pennant and world series to Brooklyn. Being up here is absolutely wonderful. That's why I'm a believer in fairy tales now. You see, it actually happened to me. (Jackie Robinson, writing in the Pittsburgh courier the day after breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947)

MAYA ANGELOU - FREDERICK DOUGLASS - RALPH ELLISON - MUHAMMAD ALI - STANLEY CROUCH - MALCOM X - PUBLIC ENEMY - MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. - BARBARA JORDAN - STOKELY CARMICHAEL - LANGSTON HUGHES - W.E.B. DUBOIS - HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR. - CORNEL WEST - ABRAHAM LINCOLN - ALEX HALEY - TONI MORRISON

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579121578
• ISBN-13: 978-1579121570
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #775,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive compendium on the American Black Experience, February 28, 2009

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The African-American Archive : The History of the Black Experience Through Documents (Hardcover)

This is the definitive compendium on the American Black Experience. This 785-page book of documents reproduced from original sources, tracks the Black experience across four centuries, hitting all of the key sign posts: From the first slave ships that landed in Annapolis Maryland in 1619 to the O.J. Simpson trial of 1994. Complete speeches, critical laws and edicts are presented in their entirety in an eminently readable way. Superbly organized and well annotated.

The only thing that comes close to this compendium is Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Africana. The Appiah/Gates book is an Encyclopedia that better covers the connection to Africa and thus in this case only is a great deal more thorough.

The Wright book is a bit pricey, so it is welcomed news to see that its companion is not in paper.

Five Stars