WITNESSES FOR FREEDOM

by R.C. -- Ed. Barton ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 1948

A socio-literary study of Negro autobiography, from Booker T. Washington to Richard Wright, which appraises 22 books as literature and as expressions of various attitudes and philosophies toward racial discrimination. The material is divided into four sections; the ""accommodators"", -- Booker T. Washington, James Corrothers, William Pickens, Jane Edna Hunter, an earlier group who accepted race inferiority; the ""achievers"", Negroes who went ahead despite prejudice,- ""Major"" Taylor, Lt. William J. Powell, Matthew A. Hensen, W.C. Handy, Mary Church Terrell; the ""experimenters"" of the '30's and '40's, Juanita Harrison, William Braithwaite, Zora Neale Hurston, Taylor Gorden, Elizabeth Laura Adams, Claude McKay, Era Bell Thompson, Negrees who minimized the issue; and finally, those who actively protested in favor of a new freedom, Frederick Douglass, W..B. DuBois, Angelo Herndon, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, J. ders Redding and Richard Wright. While some will criticize both inclusions and exclusions, these biographers are all considered for qualities of mind and temperament, the impacts of white man's culture on them. Scholarly, challenging, primarily an interesting analysis of the recial problem, and secondarily a study of phase of American writing. Of value for both students of sociology and literature.

Pub Date: June 9, 1948

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1948

Categories: NONFICTION