Let nobody turn us around : voices of resistance, reform, and renewal : an African American anthology

What is unique, startling, and most significant about this book is that all the sources are primary, and all are the voices of African Americans themselves articulating their experiences in an effort to understand and cope with their circumstances in this country over several centuries and how to change them. This rich, highly readable collection illuminates a broad spectrum of ideology, as well as how both continuity and change have affected the black community in the United States... An impressive combination of serious scholarship with accessible writing, this is a book that none who purport to understand this nation can afford to ignore. Michigan Citizen Manning Marable and Leith Mullings's text gives us a powerful late twentieth-century interpretation and compilation of exemplary voices in the black past and present. Their progressive vision is a breath of fresh air and badly needed in these times. -- Cornel West, Harvard University This anthology packs in one volume the sterling essence of our vast intellectual and political heritage. This is a wonderful teaching tool; more than this, it is a book that none who purport to understand this nation can afford to ignore. -- Gerald Horne, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill A remarkably broad compilation of the signal primary sources through which black people articulated both their always shifting and always various definitions of what, precisely, a black identity is, as well as the most efficacious methods through which to achieve our freedom. Marable and Mullings have produced a work indispensable to the field of African-American Studies. -- Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University Conveys the essence of the struggle to achieve freedom by African-American men and women. The work is as dramatic as is the struggle itself. -- Herbert Aptheker There is no comparable volume that can match the comprehensive coverage in this first, single-volume documentary history of black thought... Essential reading. -- George M. Fredrickson, Stanford University From early slave narratives to Malcolm X to the Black Radical Congress of 1998, this anthology presents essential viewpoints and insights from the black freedom struggle. Highly recommended! -- Howard Winant, Temple University No other anthology so fully incorporates views from African American women as well as men, workers as well as intellectuals, and individuals from diverse political prospectives. -- Johnnetta B. Cole, Emory University Let Nobody Turn Us Around puts a sword and compass back in faltering hands... An indispensable, never-failing guide without which the bravest stumble and lose heart. -- Ossie Davis An essential reference: instructive, evocative, surprising, enraging, painful, depressing-but ultimately exhilarating. Kirkus Reviews While well-known voices such as Frederick Douglass and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. appear, it is the discovery of the lesser-known that makes this anthology special. For example, Jo Ann Robinson's account of organizing the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott presents concrete background on a mythic struggle. Narratives by Solomon Northrup describing the heartrending breakup of families during a slave auction (1841) and Naomi Ward's recounting of her experiences in 'I Am a Domestic' (1940) are very affecting. San Francisco Chronicle This unique and groundbreaking volume captures the struggle and hope persistent in the movement for social justice. Orlando Times Let Nobody Turn Us Around is 'not a typical encyclopedia of African-American thought.'... The voices behind the 20th century's most influential Black political and social movements ring loud and clear in expressing both past and future struggle ... an eclectic range of material. Emerge Douglas 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. The Bookwatch This book is a significant achievement. Its scope, organization, and bibliography make it an ideal resource for scholars, for graduate and undergraduate students in courses on American or African American history or studies, and for anyone else interested in American intellectual or social history. The North Carolina Historical Review It's an ambitious compilation of some of the most important literature chronicling the African-American experience. Huntsville Times The editors make the crucial argument that the themes of reform, resistance, and renewal formed the cultural and social matrix of black consciousness, community, and public discourse. They identify the key debates in the black community throughout American history and provide an analytical framework of the major tendencies. They also make a forceful argument for making the issue of gender a central one throughout this important volume. Race Relations Abstracts A useful compendium. The Journal Of Southern History The couple encompass both the extraordinary and the every day. -- Robin Dougherty The Boston Globe It is an excellent work of scholarship and a reference that belongs in the homes of all Black Americans. Www.Bookviews.Com The history recounted in this book is important. Political Affairs A readable, comprehensive, fascinating and thick anthology of African American documents that are as gripping as they are informative. Powerful, dramatic, hard to put down, this comprehensive volume of both significant leaders and ordinary people with highly perceptive views, should find a place in many college courses. Afro Times As I read this book, it was a pleasant journey reading Nat Turner's 1831 statement, 'Harlem Renaissance manifesto' of Langston Hughes, to Mumia Abu-Jamal's 'A Voice from Death Row,' and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union' speech of 2008, which I found informative. The selections and critical historical references allow readers to view African American history through the lens of people who helped create it. Let Nobody Turn Us Around is evidence of how important it is for African Americans to document their experiences so that we can read, reflect and learn more about ourselves. Phatitude Literary Magazine Read more...