"All the World Is Here!": The Black Presence at White City [Paperback]

Christopher Robert Reed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2002 | Series: Blacks in the Diaspora

"This entrancing book looks at [the clash of class and caste within the black community].... An important reexamination of African American history."
—Choice

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago showed the world that America had come of age. Dreaming that they could participate fully as citizens, African Americans flocked to the fair by the thousands. "All the World Is Here!" examines why they came and the ways in which they took part in the Exposition. Their expectations varied. Well-educated, highly assimilated African Americans sought not just representation but also membership at the highest level of decision making and planning. They wanted to participate fully in all intellectual and cultural events. Instead, they were given only token roles and used as window dressing. Their stories of pathos and joy, disappointment and hope, are part of the lost history of "White City." Frederick Douglass, who embodied the dream that inclusion within the American mainstream was possible, would never forget America's World's Fair snub.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In 1893 Ida Wells, Frederick Douglass, et al. wrote a pamphlet entitled The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition, a text that formed the basis for the subsequent view of African American history. In fact, as Reed so successfully shows, there was considerable African American participation in, and representation at, the fair, but it was from classes and in ways that did not meet the approval of the elite black leadership. Discussing the issues of class and caste within the US's black community, the author shows how the Columbian Exposition became a battleground between the Afro—Saxon elite, who wished to avoid all mention of a separate history with African roots, and a new respectable class one generation removed from slavery, a class that glorified in its own achievements. This entrancing book looks at this clash in four parts—the conflict nationally, in Chicago, at the fair, and in reactions to the African exhibits and congresses at the fair. An important reexamination of African American history, especially in that it introduces a large number of African American individuals of accomplishment little known today, this volume includes significant, but poorly reproduced, illustrations to support the argument. All academic and public collections." —R. T. Brown, Westfield State College, Choice, October 2000

(R. T. Brown, Westfield State College Choice 2000)

About the Author

Christopher Robert Reed is Seymour N. Logan Professor of History and North American Studies, and Director of the St. Clair Drake Center for African and African American Studies at Roosevelt University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (February 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253215358
• ISBN-13: 978-0253215352
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,534,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars African Americans in the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, May 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: "All the World Is Here!": The Black Presence at White City (Library Binding)

Christopher Reed has made another wonderful contribution to the historical scholarship. The current book is a very well-researched, compellingly argued refutation of the claim made by some contemporaries of the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893 that African American participation in the event was very limited. Reed has shown that many blacks--both well-known and anonymous--attended the world's fair in various capacities. The photographs reinforce this point also. Reed further contends that the very high stature of Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, Ferdinand Barnett, and I. Garland Penn, the authors of an 1893 booklet called The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not Present in the World's Columbian Exposition, and the attention which the work drew from historians has led many to erroneously believe that there was virtually no black participation in the aforementioned event.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars nice idea, badly written, September 18, 2005

By 

A reader who likes good writing (Columbia MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "All the World Is Here!": The Black Presence at White City (Paperback)

I agree with the earlier reviewer that Reed shows that blacks did participate in the Columbian Exposition of 1893, but to get to this point, the reader has to wade through some of the worst sentences I have ever read. I had to stop every 10 minutes or so to try to figure out what he meant to say and to give myself a break. The book should have been condensed to an article. The chapter on the Haitian exhibit, for example, is only 6.5 pages long, spends three of those talking about Frederick Douglass, and in general seems like an afterthought. I don't think Reed ever clearly says what he is trying to prove, (despite the fact that he has about three introductions purporting to do so), you have to get his points through osmosis. Quite frankly this is one of the worst written books I have ever read, however good his ideas and research may be. I do not recommend it. I would not normally write such a scathing review but if I bought the book based on what the previous reviewer said I would be sorely disappointed.