Freedomways Reader: Prophets In Their Own Time (Interventions--Theory and Contemporary Politics) [Hardcover]

Esther Cooper Jackson (Author), D D (Author), Constance Pohl (Author), EDITOR * (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 2000 | Series: Interventions--Theory and Contemporary Politics

From 1961 to 1985, a period of massive social change for African Americans, Freedomways Quarterly published the leaders and artists of the black freedom movement. Figures of towering historical stature wrote for the journal, among them Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, President Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere. Three Nobel Prize laureates appeared in its pages—Dr. Martin Luther King, Pablo Neruda, and Derek Walcott—and several Pulitzer Prize winners—Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks. No other journal could boast such a long list of names from the civil rights movement: Freedomways was like no other journal. It was unique.Yet despite the well-known names, few Americans have heard of this national treasure. Why? Simply put, the United States was not ready for this journal in 1961. Today, many Americans cannot remember a United States where racial segregation was legal, but in 1961, many of the battles for integration were still to be won.This book is subtitled Prophets in their Own Country because the editors and contributors to Freedomways were not honored at the journal’s inception. Eventually, however, much of their vision did come to pass. Until now, these documents, which show the depth and breadth of the struggle for democracy, had been lost to the public. The publication of the Freedomways Reader restores this lost treasury. It contains what amounts to an oral history of the liberation movements of the 1960s through the 1980s. Through the reports of the Freedom Riders, the early articles against the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, the short stories and poems of Alice Walker, and the memoirs of black organizers in the Jim Crow south of the Thirties, one can walk in the footsteps of these pioneers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When it was created in 1961, the goal of the publication Freedomways was "to serve as a vehicle of communication, which will mirror developments in the diversified many-sided struggles of the Negro people." By the time of its demise in 1986, it had tracked the peril and promise of the civil rights era and the bewildering decade of the 1970s. This informative reader, compiled by the magazine's cofounder Esther Cooper Jackson, covers the full scope of Freedomways' history. In addition to contributions by W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and James Baldwin, the magazine boasted three Nobel Prize winners in Martin Luther King Jr., Pablo Neruda, and Derek Walcott. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee graced its pages, along with then-rising stars Alice Walker, Angela Davis, and Jesse Jackson. Covering topics as diverse as politics, culture, jazz, the antiwar movement, Pan-Africanism, prison, and education, Freedomways Reader is an excellent diary of late-20th-century African American life. --Eugene Holley Jr.

From Booklist

Jackson was the original editor of Freedomways, a quarterly magazine published between 1961 and 1986, chronicling the struggle for racial justice in the U.S. The magazine featured contributions by many of the luminaries of black literature, art, and politics, including three Nobel Prize laureates: Martin Luther King Jr., Pablo Neruda, and Derek Wolcott. Other contributors included Alice Walker, James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Jomo Kenyatta, C. L. R. James, and common black folk. The collection features poetry, essays, speeches, articles. There are memoirs of a Birmingham coal miner, tributes to Paul Robeson, and reflections of black feminists, labor organizers, and prisoners. The anthology begins with articles actually written in the 1940s and 1950s, which provide historical context for the journal itself, followed by the pieces, organized topically, e.g., the Southern movement, international solidarity, the movement in the North, and art and activism. This comprehensive collection reflects the global nature of the struggle for equality and the longing for racial justice over an important 25-year period. Vanessa Bush

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (January 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813367697
• ISBN-13: 978-0813367699
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,140,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important addition to personal and academic Black studies., April 5, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedomways Reader: Prophets In Their Own Time (Interventions--Theory and Contemporary Politics) (Hardcover)

From 1961 to 1986, Freedomways published the words and thoughts of the leaders of the freedom movement; yet few modern Americans have heard of the publication. Esther Cooper Jackson and Constance Pohl's Freedomways Reader gathers key writings from the pages of the various Freedomways booklets, charting the struggles for racial equality and providing an oral history of black freedom struggles, from reports of the Freedom Riders to short stories.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very important Book, February 1, 2001

By 

A customer "mistermaxxx" (usa) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Freedomways Reader: Prophets In Their Own Time (Interventions--Theory and Contemporary Politics) (Hardcover)

this is a Great book that covers so much Historical important information.a wide view of knowledge of the struggle all here.a must have.books like this cover so much.