Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal An African American Anthology [Hardcover]

Manning Marable (Author), Mumia Abu-Jamal (Contributor), Richard Allen (Contributor), Molefi Asante (Contributor), James Baldwin (Contributor), Amiri Baraka (Contributor), Edward Wilmot Blyden (Contributor), Cyril V. Briggs (Contributor), Stokely Carmichael (Contributor), Frederick Douglass (Contributor), William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (Contributor), Paul Laurence Dunbar (Contributor), Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (Contributor), Olaudah Equiano (Contributor), Louis Farrakhan (Contributor), Henry Highland Garnet (Contributor), Fannie Lou Hamer (Contributor), Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (Contributor), bell hooks (Contributor), Langston Hughes (Contributor), James Weldon Johnson (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1999

This anthology of black writers traces the evolution of African-American perspectives throughout American history, from the early years of slavery to the end of the 20th century. The essays, manifestos, interviews, and documents assembled here, contextualized with critical commentaries from Marable and Mullings, introduce the reader to the character and important controversies of each period of black history.

The selections represent a broad spectrum of ideology. Conservative, radical, nationalistic, and integrationist approaches can be found in almost every period, yet there have been striking shifts in the evolution of social thought and activism. The editors judiciously illustrate how both continuity and change affected the African-American community in terms of its internal divisions, class structure, migration, social problems, leadership, and protest movements. They also show how gender, spirituality, literature, music, and connections to Africa and the Caribbean played a prominent role in black life and history.
To view the companion study guide, please click here http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/ISBN/0742527093

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Throughout their entire history as a people," write historian Manning Marable and anthropologist Leith Mullings, "African Americans have created themselves." This well-conceived, thoughtfully annotated anthology both documents and honors that process of creating identities, histories, and cultural memories in the aftermath of diaspora.

Marable and Mullings's collection takes in examples of African American social and political writing over the last three centuries. The anthology's first section, covering the years 1789 to 1865, opens with an excerpt from Nigeria-born Olaudah Equiano's memoir of slavery, which became a key document in the abolitionist movement; the section includes passages from writings and testimonials by Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass, among others. The second section visits the era of reconstruction and the emergent nationalist and civil rights movements, with contributions from Booker T. Washington, William Monroe Trotter, W.E.B. Du Bois, and others. The third and fourth sections address the relocation of African Americans from predominantly rural settings to the industrial centers of the Northeast and Midwest, a time of revolutionary and artistic ferment, while the fifth section takes readers to the present, guided by the remarks of Cornel West, Jesse Jackson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and other contemporary thinkers.

Much of this material is relatively well known, but many pieces have not been gathered elsewhere, making the anthology especially useful to students seeking diverse points of view. --Gregory McNamee

From Booklist

Marable, founding director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University, and feminist Mullings, a City University of New York anthropology professor, coedit this notable collection of primary sources in African American history. The coverage is broad: a section on slavery and abolitionism includes slave narratives and public statements (e.g., David Walker's appeal) but also court documents, speeches, and spirituals. The other four sections are on the Reconstruction and reaction (1861^-1915), the Great Migration to the end of World War II (1915^-45), "The Second Reconstruction" (1945^-75), and recent reflections on the status of blacks (1975 to the present). The editors supply introductions to the volume, each section, and each selection. Their organizing idea is that "African Americans have created themselves . . . construct[ing] their cultural identity and notions of humanity in a country that denied them citizenship and basic human identity for hundreds of years." Thus, "reform, resistance, and renewal" are unifying themes. Mary Carroll

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 598 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Revised edition (December 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847699307
• ISBN-13: 978-0847699308
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #537,261 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 For those who think they know history!, January 5, 2005

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W. D. Calvert (Chicago, IL via way of Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal An African American Anthology (Hardcover)

This is an absolute must have. It is the cornerstone of my library collection. From "David Walker's Appeal" to Angela Davis' "I Am a Revolutionary Black Woman" to Mumia Abu-Jamal's "A Voice from Death Row" this book is pure genius. It is not a book to borrow but to be owned and cherished in any book collection!

5.0 out of 5 stars The importance of Primary Docs., December 11, 2005

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Donald Taylor II "Organic Scholar" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal An African American Anthology (Hardcover)

This text allows the reader to construct their own knowledge of the history of Blacks in America through the lens of the people themselves and their words and literature. Mullings and Marable have provided us with a rich document worth your time and money.

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique and exceptional contribution to Black Studies., May 4, 2000

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

This review is from: Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal An African American Anthology (Hardcover)

This Afro-American anthology provides accounts of civil rights reforms, history and resistance, gathering the most important political writings and testimonials from over three centuries. Activists like DuBois, Douglass and Malcolm X are joined by lesser-known names in this survey of how individual actions formed into a movement. Oral testimonies, interviews and essays blend in an important coverage.