Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It

Herb Boyd is one of the most accomplished African American journalists on the scene--and also a gifted anthologist, as evidenced by his award-winning collection Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America. His new reader, Autobiography of a People, is a potpourri of Afro-American voices spanning three centuries--a soulful choir singing of joy, sorrow, freedom, and victory. "The story of African people is a glorious one," Boyd writes, "replete with a pantheon of mighty voices and courageous souls who in their combined strength have overcome inestimable odds and carved a special niche in the gallery of world culture." From the 18th century, we read the slave narratives of Olaudah Equiano, the pristine poetry of Phillis Wheatley, and scientific writings of astronomer Benjamin Banneker. The power of Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth called forth the fires of freedom one century later. And, as the book heads into the 20th century, we revisit the wisdom of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, the homeland strivings of Marcus Garvey, and modern life-and-death lessons bequeathed to us by Mumia Abu-Jamal. From Marian Anderson to Malcolm X, Boyd highlights the diversity and dynamism of African American people and the benefits of all who are touched by their stories. --Eugene Holley Jr.