Readings - General Historical Overviews
There Is a River : the Black struggle for freedom in America by Call Number: 323.11 H263T (Locations: Hutchins Library Circulating Collection; Cater G. Woodson Center)Publication Date: 1981From an unflinchingly black perspective, Harding writes of the struggle of heroic African americans to achieve freedom from slavery. Index; photographs.
Freedom Dreams : the Black radical imagination by Call Number: 305.896 K29f (Location: Hutchins Library Circulating)Publication Date: 2002This exciting history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora throughout the twentieth century begins with the premise that the catalyst for political engagement has rarely been misery, poverty, or oppression. People are drawn to social movement because of hope: their dreams of a new world radically different from the one they inherited. Our imagination may be the most revolutionary tool available to us, and yet we have failed to understand its political importance and recognize it as a powerful social force. From Paul Robeson to Aime Cesaire to Jayne Cortez, Kelley unearths freedom dreams in African and Third World liberation movements, in the hope that Communism offered, in the imaginative mindscapes of Surrealism, in the transformative potential of radical feminism, and in the four-hundred-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow. With Freedom Dreams, Kelley affirms his place as "a major new voice on the intellectual left" (Frances Fox Piven) and shows us that any serious movement toward freedom must begin in the mind.
A Nation under Our Feet : Black political struggles in the rural South, from slavery to the great migration by Call Number: 975.004 H148n (Hutchins Library Circulating; Carter G. Woodson Center)Publication Date: 2003Hahn's work links periods normally considered distinct and even autonomous in scholarly studies of African-American life. .Along the way he introduces us to a cast of remarkable characters who labored relatively anonymously but heroically to give meaning to black Americans' visions for freedom...Hahn's compelling narrative shows how black workers and their political and social leaders "energized the meaning of democracy" and forced the nation to confront "deep historical problems" that have resided at the heart of the American polity (10). This majestic and impassioned narrative is perhaps the deepest and most penetrating exploration we have of the long pre-history of the twentieth-century civil rights movement.
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
Dr. Chad Williams, Chair of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University, created a #CharlestonSyllabus, Twitter hashtag and placed a call to colleagues to aid him in developing a reading syllabus for faculty and students. He received an overwhelming response.
The original list was modified from 15 pages down to 11 pages by Alicestyne Turley, Director, Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education, who is more than happy to join with you in sharing knowledge with your classes or as a community of educators.
- Chronicle of Higher Education articleYou may view Dr. Williams' complete bibliography in the Chronicle of Higher Education article.
