Freedom on My Mind

by Marable, Manning

• ISBN13: 9780231108904
• ISBN10: 0231108907
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Freedom on My Mindreveals the richly diverse and complex experience of black people in America in their own words, from the Colonial era of Benjamin Banneker to the present world of Kweisi Mfume and Clarence Thomas. Personal correspondence, excerpts from slave narratives and autobiographies, leaflets, significant addresses and speeches, oral histories and interviews, political manifestos, and important statements of black institutions and organizations are brought together to form a volume that testifies to the boundless creative potential of black Americans in indefatigable pursuit of the dream of freedom. Arranged thematically, the selections illustrate the politics of resistance -- as reflected through gender and sexuality, kinship and community, work and leisure, faith and spirituality. They also highlight the contributions of women to black identity, history, and consciousness, and offer excerpts from the work of some of the finest stylists in the African American canon. A general introduction as well as short introductions and bibliographies for each document further enhance the usefulness of the book for students and researchers.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
PART 1: GENDER, KINSHIP, AND COMMUNITY	1	(280)
Chapter One: Women and Gender	3	(124)
one Selected Speeches, Sojourner Truth	5	(4)
two The Jealous Mistress, Harriet Ann Jacobs	9	(6)
three Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race, Anna Julia Cooper	15	(17)
four The Damnation of Women, W.E.B. Du Bois	32	(15)
five Women's Most Serious Problem, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson	47	(5)
six On Being Young-A Woman-and Colored, Marita Bonner	52	(6)
seven A Century of Progress of Negro Women, Mary McLeod Bethune	58	(5)
eight To All Black Women, from All Black Men, Eldridge Cleaver	63	(6)
nine Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female, Frances Beat	69	(10)
ten Feminism and Black Liberation, Audre Lorde	79	(6)
eleven The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework, Angela Davis	85	(18)
twelve Statement of Anita Hill to the Senate Judiciary Committee, October 11, 1991, Anita Hill	103	(7)
thirteen Establishing g Black Feminism, Barbara Smith	110	(6)
fourteen Toward a Black Feminist Liberation Agenda: Race Gender and Violence, Kristen Clarke	116	(11)
Chapter Two: Kinship and Community	127	(62)
one Kidnappers! Lewis Williamson	129	(3)
two To His Son, 2/2/1850, William J. Walker	132	(3)
three Childhood, Harriet Jacobs	135	(9)
four For My People, Margaret Walker	144	(3)
five Untitled Excerpt from Writings About her Childhood, Ella Baker	147	(3)
six Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin	150	(12)
seven Playing Hardball, Henry Louis Gates	162	(8)
eight From a Black Woman to a Black Man, Maya Angelou	170	(3)
nine In My Father's House, Manning Marable	173	(8)
ten Kwanzaa and the Ethics of Sharing: Forging Our Future in a New Era, Maulana Karenga	181	(8)
Chapter Three, Imagining the Black World	189	(92)
one Poems, Phillis Wheatley	191	(3)
two Argument for Colonization, John Russwurm	194	(4)
three Ethiopia, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper	198	(3)
four West India Emancipation, Frederick Douglas	201	(18)
five The American Negro and His Fatherland, Henry McNeal Turner	219	(6)
six Declaration of the Rights of Negro Peoples of the World, Marcus Garvey	225	(9)
seven Heritage, Countee Cullen	234	(5)
eight Writings, Paul Robeson	239	(12)
nine Letters from Abroad, Malcolm X	251	(5)
ten Selected Essays, Audre Lorde	256	(14)
eleven "The Continuity of Struggle", Assata Shakur	270	(11)
PART 2: POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE	281	(294)
Chapter Four: Political Leadership and Social Protest	283	(100)
one Petitions: Petition of the Africans, Living in Boston, Felix; Anonymous Appeal to William, Earl of Dartmouth; and The Earliest Extant Negro Petition to Congress, Jupiter Nicholson, Jacob Nicholson, Joe Albert, and Thomas Pritchet	285	(9)
two Letter to Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Banneker	294	(5)
three Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, Peter Williams Jr.	299	(8)
four Editorial from the First Edition of Freedom's Journal, Rev. Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm	307	(5)
five Men of Color, To Arms! Frederick Douglass	312	(4)
six Speech to the Georgia Legislature, Henry McNeal Turner	316	(5)
seven Letter of Nimrod Rowley to Abraham Lincoln, August 1864	321	(3)
eight An Address Delivered at the Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper	324	(5)
nine Letter to the Editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, Booker T. Washington	329	(3)
ten Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others, W.E.B. Du Bois	332	(11)
eleven Selected Poems, Claude McKay	343	(4)
twelve Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr.	347	(16)
thirteen From Protest to Politics, Bayard Rustin	363	(5)
fourteen The Business of America is War, and It Is Time for a Change, Shirley Chisholm	368	(4)
fifteen The Struggle Continues, Jesse Jackson	372	(11)
Chapter Five: in Pursuit of Justice	383	(66)
one Speech on the Fugitive Slave Bill, Samuel Rinngold Ward	385	(5)
two Hannah Johnson to Abraham Lincoln, July 31, 1863	390	(3)
three Sojourner Truth: Extracts from Her Lecture on Capital Punishment	393	(3)
four Lynch Law in All Its Phases, Ida B. Wells-Barnett	396	(16)
five Songs of the Prison Plantation	412	(6)
six The Lynching, Claude McKay	418	(2)
seven Freedom Songs	420	(4)
eight To Praise Our Bridges, Fannie Lou Hamer	424	(4)
nine The Resistant Spirit, Robert Williams	428	(4)
ten Life In Prison, George Jackson	432	(9)
eleven The Legacy of George Jackson, Angela Davis	441	(4)
twelve B-Block Days and Nightmares, Mumia Abu-Jamal	445	(4)
Chapter Six: Work, Labor, and Economic Development	449	(54)
one Work Songs	451	(5)
two Industrial Education for the Negro, Thomas McCants Stewart	456	(3)
three Harvest Song, Jean Toomey	459	(3)
four Song to a Negro Wash-woman, Langston Hughes	462	(3)
five Why Should We March?, A. Philip Randolph	465	(5)
six Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth, Richard Wright	470	(12)
seven A Giant Step Toward Unity, William Simons	482	(5)
eight All God's Dangers, Ned Cobb	487	(16)
Chapter Seven: A Vision of Democracy	503	(72)
one America, James Monroe Whitfield	505	(6)
two On American "Democracy" and the Negro, Robert Purvis	511	(4)
three Negro Patriotism and Devotion, Kelly Miller	515	(7)
four Our Democracy and the Ballot, James Weldon Johnson	522	(8)
five The Shame of America, Archibald Grimké	530	(16)
six The Kind of Democracy the Negro Race Expects, William Pickens	546	(5)
seven Selected Poems, Langston Hughes	551	(8)
eight I, Too, Am American, Paul Robeson	559	(4)
nine The American Dream and the American Negro, James Baldwin	563	(6)
ten Who Then Will Speak for the Common Good?, Barbara Jordan	569	(6)
PART 3: CULTURE, FAITH, AND CELEBRATION	575	(148)
Chapter Eight: Popular Culture	577	(64)
one Folk Tales	579	(4)
two The Prize Fighter, editorial in Crisis	583	(3)
three The Negro Spirituals, Alain Locke	586	(11)
four The Dilemma of the Negro Author, James Weldon Johnson	597	(8)
five It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), Duke Ellington	605	(3)
six High Tide in Harlem, Richard Wright	608	(6)
seven The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Gil Scott-Heron	614	(3)
eight Where Are the Films About Real Black Men and Women?, Ellen Holly	617	(5)
nine The Signifying Monkey, Henry Louis Gates Jr.	622	(4)
ten What America Would Be Like Without Blacks, Ralph Ellison	626	(7)
eleven 0. J. Simpson and Our Trial by Fire, Michael Eric Dyson	633	(8)
Chapter Nine: Faith and Spirituality	641	(82)
one Spirituals	643	(5)
two Spiritual Song, Richard Allen	648	(4)
three A Thanksgiving Sermon, Absalom Jones	652	(8)
four Excerpt from Clotel, William Wells Brown	660	(11)
five Excerpt from A Brand Plucked from the Fire, Julia A. Foote	671	(6)
six An Antebellum Sermon, Paul Laurence Dunbar	677	(4)
seven Writings, Fenton Johnson	681	(6)
eight Go Down Death, James Weldon Johnson	687	(4)
nine Faith Hasn't Got No Eyes, Zora Neale Hurston	691	(4)
ten Salvation, Langston Hughes	695	(3)
eleven The Most Durable Power, Martin Luther King Jr.	698	(3)
twelve Black Theology and Black Power, James H. Cone	701	(8)
thirteen The Black Church and Socialist Politics, Cornel West	709	(7)
fourteen A Torchlight for America, Louis Farrakhan	716	(7)
Index	723	(6)
Acknowledgments	729