Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
 
Part I.
PRE-REVOLUTIONARY VOICES
James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (1710–?)
Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797)
Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784)
Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833)
John Cuffe (c. 1755–?)
 
Part II.
THE LORD WILL PROVIDE
Richard Allen (1760–1831)
Old Elizabeth (1766–?)
Jupiter Hammon (c.1711–1806)
Belinda (c. 1717–?)
Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806)
Prince Hall (1748–1797)
 
Part III.
FROM THE COTTON PATCH TO THE BIG HOUSE
Jenny Proctor (c. 1845–?)
Peter Williams (?–1849)
Abd ar-Rahman (c. 1790–?)
Austin Steward (1793–1860)
 
Part IV.
LET YOUR MOTTO BE RESISTANCE!
Nat Turner (1800–1831)
Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882)
Harriet Jacobs (1815?–1897)
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)
John Parker (1827–1900)
Osborne Anderson (1830–1872)

Part V.
CAUGHT BETWEEN THE BLUE AND THE GRAY
Mattie J. Jackson (1800–?)
William Wells Brown (1814–1884)
Robert Purvis (1810–1898)
Harriet Tubman (1820–1913)
Elizabeth Keckley (1824–1907)
John Boston (c. 1842–?) 126
Charlotte Forten (1837–1914) 127
Ann (c. 1835–?)
Octave Johnson (1840–?)
Patsey Leach (1843–?)

Part VI.
NO LAND, NO MULES, AND FOR MILLIONS, NO VOTE
John Mercer Langston (1829–1879)
Sojourner Truth (c.1797–1883)
Samuel Larkin (c. 1840–?)
John R. Lynch (1847–1939)
 
Part VII.
DAWN OF A NEW CENTURY
Booker T. Washington (1857?–1915)
Lewis Latimer (1848–1928)
Henry McNeal Turner (1834–1915)
Anna Julia Cooper (1858/9–1964)
Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906)
Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875–1935)
 
Part VIII.
AND SOME OF US ARE BOLD
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)
Ida B. Wells Barnett (1862–1931)
Matthew Henson (1866–1955)
Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton (1890–1941)
Jack Johnson (1878–1946)
Ethel Waters (1896–1977)

Part IX.
SEEKING A WIDER WORLD
Addie Hunton (1875–1943)
Harry Haywood (1898–1985)
Era Bell Thompson (1906–1986)
Dorothy West (1909–1998)
Richard Wright (1908–1960)
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940)

Part X.
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE AND BEYOND
Langston Hughes (1898–1967)
Howard ‘‘Stretch’’ Johnson (1915–2000)
Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
Paul´ı Murray (1910–1985)
Nate Shaw (c. 1900– )
Haywood Patterson (1913–1952)
James Cameron (1914–2006)
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908–1972)

Part XI.
ON THE HOME FRONT
Conrad Lynn (1908–1995)
Marian Anderson (1900–1993)
Nelson Peery (1923–2015)
Althea Gibson (1927–2003)
A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979)
Clarence Atkins (1922– )
Charles Denby (1907–1983)
Maya Angelou (1928–2014)
Coleman Young (1918–1998)

Part XII.
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Curtis Morrow (1933– )
Jane (1914– )
Paul Robeson (1898–1976)
Sunnie Wilson (1908–1999)
Coretta Scott King (1927–2006)
Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005)
 
Part XIII.
AIN’T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN US AROUND
Rosa Parks (1913–2005)
Ella Baker (1903–1986)
James Forman (1928–2005)
Melba Pattillo Beals (1942– )

Part XIV.
BREAKTHROUGHS AND PERSONAL INTIMACIES
Ossie Davis (1917–2005) and Ruby Dee (1924–2014)
Anne Moody (1940– )
Sharon Robinson (1950– )
Malcolm X (1925–1965)
General Gordon Baker (1942–2014)
Gordon Parks (1912–2006)
David Parks (1944– )

Part XV.
TO DIE FOR THE PEOPLE
Kwame Ture (1941–1998)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968)
H. Rap Brown (1943– )
Angela Davis (1944– )
George Jackson (1941–1971)
Elaine Brown (1943– )
Randall Robinson (1941–2023)

Part XVI.
A WAY WITH WORDS
LL Cool J (1968– )
Johnnie Cochran (1938–2005)
Margaret Walker (1915–1998)
Lee Stringer (1950– )
Sam Fulwood (1956– )
Tyrone Powers (1961– )

Part XVII.
BITTER THE CHASTENING ROD
Audre Lorde (1934–1993)
Jill Nelson (1953– )
Johnnetta B. Cole (1936– )
Max Roach (1924– )
Alvin Ailey (1931–1989)
Colin L. Powell (1937– )
 
Part XVIII.
“NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!”
Al Sharpton (1954– )
Bari-Ellen Roberts (1953– )
Anita Hill (1950– )
Gary Franks (1953– )
James McBride (1957– )
Mumia Abu-Jamal (1956– )
Kevin Powell (1966– )
Rev. Bernice King (1963– )
 
Selected Bibliography

About the Author

Herb Boyd is the coeditor with Robert Allen of Brotherman—The Odyssey of Black Men in America and the author of Down the Glory Road and Black Panthers for Beginners. An award-winning journalist, his articles have appeared in the Amsterdam News, Black Scholar, Code, Down Beat, Emerge, Metro Times (Detroit), and The Source. He is the national editor of "The Black World Today," an online publication, and he teaches at the College of New Rochelle and New York University.

Reviews

"A book of historical truth spoken loud and clear, as none of us have ever quite heard it before."-Black Issues Book Review

"A superbly crafted collection."-QBR

"An original and triumphant collection of first-person narratives from autobiographies, memoirs, journal writings, correspondence, and slave narratives... The number of selections makes for an impressive and eclectic chorus."-Library Journal

"A book of historical truth spoken loud and clear, as none of us have ever quite heard it before."-Black Issues Book Review

"A superbly crafted collection."-QBR

"An original and triumphant collection of first-person narratives from autobiographies, memoirs, journal writings, correspondence, and slave narratives... The number of selections makes for an impressive and eclectic chorus."-Library Journal