There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America [Paperback]

Vincent Harding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1993

From an unflinchingly black perspective, Harding writes of the struggle of heroic African americans to achieve freedom from slavery. Index; photographs.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Civil rights activist Vincent Harding was a friend and colleague of King and worked with Coretta Scott King to establish the King Center in Atlanta, serving as its first director. A distinguished theologian and historian, he is the award-winning author of several books and lives in Denver, Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (January 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156890895
• ISBN-13: 978-0156890892
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for anyone organizing against oppression of any kind, December 16, 2000

By 

Sabida (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (Paperback)

Vincent Harding has introduced to us a well researched and well presented picture of the opposing forces to America's economic system based on slave and cheap labor. He chronicles the parallel between the systems of oppression and the systems of resistance against oppression. The River of resistance will forever run through a society where opportunity is squelched by the formation of inequality.

He removes the fictionalized view of the plantation and the relationship between master and slave and replaces it with documented reality.

Where there is oppression there is resistance to that oppression. This reality has been lost in the Hollywood depictions of slave uprisings, and the "run away slave". It is made clear that Harriet Tubman did not "run away" she was part of a well thought out and masterful organized effort to abolish slavery. There are many well researched and documented instances of organized resistance as well as individual acts of rebellion. These make up the river of resistance that flowed and continues to flow in the presence of human bigotry and oppression. This is a must read for individuals and groups of all races, cultures and nationalities who want to understand their own motives and actions against economic and social tyranny in America and abroad. Mr. Harding makes it quite clear that there are well thought out schemes and timing which are present with both the oppressor and those resisting and overturning oppression.

This is not a novel, but a text book well worth studying. He does not sensationalize nor create images of heroism. I have three copies of this book and refer to it often. Mr. Harding is a gifted researcher and scholar.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly Work, October 5, 2007

By 

Linda J. Jenkins "LJJenkins" (Rohnert Park, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (Paperback)

I purchased my first copy of There Is a River over two decades ago. I read, underlined, and wrote notes along the margins of almost every page, and purchased other books from Mr. Harding's extensive resource list. I couldn't get enough of this phenomenal text, so I read it several more times. Over the years, I purchased copies for my sons, and most recently, for one of my former students. This book truly is a must-read and it should be owned by every Black family in America. There is indeed a river! Thank you Vincent Harding.

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't skip the introduction, January 15, 2011

By 

David "Pastor" (Philadelphia, PA, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (Paperback)

This is truly an extraordinary book, worth reading again and again. I recommend it for white people, to help remove our blinders to the existence of the river of resistance to oppression and the opportunity to be part of it.
Do not skip the introduction. The paragraph about the reaction Martin Luther King's desire to "redeem the soul of America" is worth the price of the book.