Freedomways Reader

This book is subtitled Prophets in their Own Country because the editors and contributors to Freedomways were not honored at the journal’s inception. Eventually, however, much of their vision did come to pass. Until now, these documents, which show the depth and breadth of the struggle for democracy, had been lost to the public. The publication of the Freedomways Reader restores this lost treasury. It contains what amounts to an oral history of the liberation movements of the 1960s through the 1980s. Through the reports of the Freedom Riders, the early articles against the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, the short stories and poems of Alice Walker, and the memoirs of black organizers in the Jim Crow south of the Thirties, one can walk in the footsteps of these pioneers.

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Freedomways Reader: Prophets in Their Own Country (call number)

The Freedomways Reader “contains what amounts to an oral history of the black freedom struggles. Through the reports of the Freedom Riders, the early articles against the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, the short stories and poems, and the memoirs of black organizers in the Jim Crow south of the thirties, one can walk in the footsteps of these pioneers.” (From the blurb)

About Freedomways

Freedomways was the central theoretical journal of the 20th century black arts and intellectual movement in the United States.  From its opening issue in the spring of 1961, it invited historians, sociologists, economists, artists, workers, and students to write on African American history, heritage, and culture.  The brainchild of Louis Burnham and Edward Strong, it was shepherded by W.E.B. Du Bois – who edited the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP’s) The Crisis – and his wife Shirley Graham Du Bois served as the first general editor.  The journal was impacted most profoundly by the thought of Du Bois and Paul Robeson and from its founding displayed a decisively activist tone. (Read more)

Find issues of the journal Freedomways, from 1961-1985 in the library 

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