Afro-American history: primary sources

1. Africa and the slave trade. Taken from the Guinea Coast as a child : a narrative of the life and adventures of Venture / Venture Smith The horrors of the Middle Passage : the interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano / Olaudah Equiano A devout Moslem sold to the infidels : autobiography / Omar ibn Seid 2. The Afro-American before 1800. Blacks serve in the city in a time of crisis : a narrative of the proceedings of Black people during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia / Absalom Jones and Richard Allen Black people organize for self-protection : the rules of the African Society A plea for Federal protection for manumitted slaves in the south : petition of four free blacks to the United States House of Representatives, 1797 3. Slavery in the nineteenth century. Rebellion : The confessions of Nat Turner Life as a slave : a narrative / Mary Reynolds The escape of a fugitive slave : The fugitive blacksmith / James W. C. Pennington Let my people go: Spirituals : Go down, Moses ; All God's chillun got wings ; Steal away to Jesus ; Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel ; I thank God I'm free at last 4. The Free Black community, 1800-1860. The White Church's oppression of the black man : our wretchedness in consequence of the preachers of the religion of Jesus Christ / David Walker Discrimination in the Free States : Address to a legislative committee in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1842 / Charles L. Remond The slave must throw off the slaveholder : Address to a convention in Buffalo, 1843 / Henry Highland Garnet

5. The Civil War and Reconstruction. Free the slaves, then leave them alone : Address to the Emancipation League in Boston, 1862 / Frederick Douglass Educating the Freedmen of the Sea Islands : Life on the Sea Islands / Charlotte Forten Debate on compulsory free public education for all : A record of the proceedings at the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, 1868 Discrimination in Mississippi elections : Address to the United States Senate, 1876 / Blanche K. Bruce 6. The legal segregation of free people. The areas of racial discrimination : Report of the Committee on Grievances at the State Convention of Colored Men of Texas, 1883 Attack on the Supreme Court : The outrage of the Supreme Court: a letter from Henry M. Turner / Henry M. Turner Peonage in the South : The life story of a Negro Peon

7. The organization of protest. Education before equality : The Atlanta Exposition Address, 1895 / Booker T. Washington Equality and education : Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and others / W. E. B. Du Bois Black men organize : the Niagra Movement Declaration of Principles, 1905 The NAACP Program for Change : The task for the futureA Program for 1919 / NAACP Why Blacks must organize for legal rights : The Waco horror: a report on a lynching 8. The great migration brings a new mood. Why Blacks chose to leave the South: Letters of Negro migrants of 1916-1918 Black poets sing: "Yet do I marvel" / Countee Cullen ; "Heritage (for Harold Jackman)" , "I, too" / Langston Hughes ; "Dream variation", "Go down deatha funeral sermon" / James Weldon Johnson "If we must die" / Claude McKay Free Africa for Africans : The Negro's greatest enemy / Marcus Garvey

9. Depression and war: Struggle and advance. Domestic slavery : The Bronx Slave Market / Ella Baker and Marvel Cooke A Black workingman in the Communist party : You cannot kill the working class / Angelo Herndon March for a fair share : The March on Washington movement, 1941 / A. Philip Randolph Battle on the home front : What caused the Detroit riots? / Walter White 10. School desegregation. Separate schools are deliberately unequal : Summary of argument presented to the Supreme Court of the United States, 1953 / NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Little Rock prepares for desegregation : Governor Faubus rouses the mob / Daisy Bates Meredith cracks Ole Miss : I'll know victory or defeat / James Meredith 11. The nonviolent Civil Rights movement. The philosophy of nonviolent coercion : Letter from Birmingham Jail / Martin Luther King, Jr. Black political action in the South : Life in Mississippi: An interview with Fannie Lou Hamer We shall overcome: Freedom Songs : We shall overcome ; If you miss me from the back of the bus ; Ain't gonna let nobody turn me 'round ; Freedom is a constant struggle

12. The militant Black Liberation movement. Conditions in the Urban Ghetto : Cries of Harlem / HARYOU-ACT

Liberation by any means necessary : Address to a meeting in New York, 1964 / Malcolm X

Black revolutionary nationalism : The philosophy and platform of the Black Panther Party

The meaning of Black Power : Toward Black liberation / Stokely Carmichael

13. Consolidation and reaction. Double jeopardy: to be Black and female : The emergence of Black feminism

A Black political agenda : The National Black Political Convention, 1972

The Rainbow Coalition : Speech to the Democratic Convention, 1984 / Jesse Jackson

The crisis of the Black family : Ebony reports on myths about the black family.

"The material is arranged chronologically in thirteen sections, covering the entire range of American history, from the colonial period to the present. Each section has a brief historical introduction and contains from three to five documents. Each document, in turn, is introduced by a short note giving its specific historical context. The documents were selected on the basis of vividness and pertinence. They are presented in their entirety, or, if abridged, they are complete enough to enable the reader to grasp the range of thought and the frame of reference of their authors. Included are descriptions of black life, statements of black leaders, and position papers of black organizations"

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