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Written by Herb Boyd

• Format: Trade Paperback, 576 pages
 
• Publisher: Anchor
• On Sale: December 26, 2000
• Price: $21.95
• ISBN: 978-0-385-49279-9 (0-385-49279-0)

about this book

Celebrating the spirituality, courage, and intellectual achievements of African Americans, Autobiography of a People is the first anthology to effectively trace the history of the African American experience—from the Middle Passage to Emancipation, from the Civil War to Vietnam, from the Little Rock Nine to the Million Man March—by telling the story in the words of the men and women who lived it.

Editor Herb Boyd has combined a powerful chorus of voices from the past and present to create a compelling portrait of how African Americans have survived—and shaped—some of the most important events in United States history. The misery of slavery, the bloodshed of war, and the struggle for civil rights are just some of the pivotal experiences described in vivid detail throughout the book. Many of the most revered historical and intellectual figures, writers, religious leaders, and activists appear within these pages, such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Elaine Brown, Margaret Walker, and General Colin Powell. Yet this remarkable collection also includes riveting scenes from the lives of ordinary men and women whose accomplishments may not have been recorded in the history books, but whose experiences are equally important to the African American story.

Offering a wealth of historical detail and emotion, Autobiography of a People is a stunning accomplishment that brings African American history to life, in all its tragedy and triumph, in a brilliant testament to the black experience in America.


Contents

James Albert Ulawsaw * Olaudah Equiano * Phillis Wheatley * Lemuel Haynes * John Cuffe * Richard Allen * Old Elizabeth * Jupiter Hammon * Belinda * Benjamin Banneker * Prince Hall * Jenny Proctor * Peter Williams * Abd ar-Rahman * Austin Steward * Nat Turner * Henry Highland Garnet * Harriet Jacobs * Frederick Douglass * John Parker * Osborne Anderson * Mattie J. Jackson * William Wells Brown * Robert Purvis * Harriet Tubman * Elizabeth Keckley * John Boston * Charlotte Forten * Ann * Octave Johnson * Patsey Leach * John Mercer Langston * Sojourner Turth * Samuel Larkin * John R. Lynch * Booker T. Washington * Lewis Latimer * Henry McNeal Turner * Anna Julia Cooper * Mary Church Terrell * Paul Laurence Dunbar * Alice Moore Durbar-Nelson * James Weldon Johnson * W.E.B. Du Bois * Ida B. Wells Barnett * Matthew Henson * Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton * Jack Johnson * Ethel Waters * Addie Hunton * Harry Haywood * Era Bell Thompson * Dorothy West * Richard Wright * Marcus Garvey * Langston Huges * Howard "Stretch" Johnson * Zora Neale Hurston * Pauli Murray * Nate Shaw * Haywood Patterson * James Cameron * Adam Clayton Powell Jr. * Conrad Lynn * Marian Anderson * Nelson Peery * Althea Gobson * A. Philip Randolph * Clarence Atkins * Charles Denby * Maya Angelou * Coleman Young * Curtis Morrow * Jane * Paul Robeson * Sunnie Wilson * Coretta Scott King * Constance Baker Motley * Rosa Parks * Ella Baker * James Forman * Melba Pattillo Beals * Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee * Anne Moody * Sharon Robinson * Malcolm X * General Gordon Baker * Gordon Parks * David Parks * Kwame Ture * Martin Luther King Jr. * H. Rap Brown * Angela Davis * George Jackson * Elaine Brown * Randall Robinson * LL Cool J * Johnnie Cochran * Margaret Walker * Lee Stringer * Sam Fulwood * Tyrone Powers * Audre Lorde * Jill Nelson * Johnnetta B. Cole * Max Roach * Alvin Ailey * Colin L. Powell * Al Sharpton * Bari-Ellen Roberts * Anita Hill * Gary Franks * James McBride * Mumia Abu-Jamal * Kevin Powell * Rev. Bernice King