A HIGH PRICE FOR FREEDOM

A reexamination of popular notions and legends affords a deeper appreciation of the history of Black people in America.

Ford, a prolific novelist and nonfiction author, has written extensively on the African American experience from different angles. This book is more like a collection of essays than a straightforward chronological narrative, though the chapters move roughly from the appearance of the first Africans in Virginia in 1619 to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965. Along the way, Ford explores more or less familiar stories, elucidating subjects that include, for example, the matrilineal line (and mysterious sexuality) of post-Revolutionary Black polymath Benjamin Banneker; the uncredited influence of Islam on slave culture, courtesy of highly educated West Africans among the early enslaved population, about a third of whom were Muslim; the real story behind Juneteenth, when the federal government cracked down on recalcitrant slave owners in Texas, forcing them to honor the surrender of the Confederacy and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. A gifted and erudite storyteller, Ford illuminates connections running through the centuries until the “Black Freedom Struggle,” as he prefers to call what is better known as the Civil Rights Movement—the genius, courage, and strength of an unjustly oppressed people with an acute awareness of the world around them and a hunger to make things right. With powers working to censor the ugly truths of the history of race relations in the United States, Ford has given us an important book about that history that will benefit any reader.

A thought-provoking chronicle that speaks to our times.